In today’s episode we welcome to the show a long-time franchise friend, Liz Leonard, who talks about her new book, Your Franchise Fast Pass, buying a franchise, and some best practices for franchising.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
There are franchises someone can buy for less than $1 million.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- You can visit our guest’s website at: https://www.franchisefastpassbook.com/
- Purchase a copy of our guest’s book here: CLICK HERE.
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
- Connect with our guest on social:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourfranchisefastpass
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franchisefastpass/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizaleonard/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKDAwUcp1wN-0z6s86yUHJw
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/franchisefast
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Liz Leonard is an esteemed Franchise Advisor, owner of multiple businesses, and best-selling author of Your Franchise Fast Pass: Your Guide to Finding Your Ideal Business. After leaving corporate America to pursue the path of entrepreneurship, Liz and her husband founded and sold a successful business before pivoting to franchise ownership. She started her franchise advisory business in 2014 and has spent the last decade helping others match with the right-fit business for their lifestyle and personality. She is dedicated to helping individuals find opportunities to build their wealth and achieve entrepreneurial success.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, and in today’s episode, we welcome to the show a longtime franchise friend, Liz Leonard, who talks with me about her new book called Your Franchise Fast Pass. We also talk about buying a franchise and some best practices for franchising as well. Now Liz is an esteemed franchise advisor. She’s an owner of multiple businesses and a bestselling author of Your Franchise Fast Pass: Your Guide to Finding Your Ideal Business.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:43):
After leaving corporate America to pursue the path of entrepreneurship, Liz and her husband founded and sold a successful business before pivoting to franchise ownership. She started her franchise advisory business in 2014 and has spent the last decade helping others match with the right fit business for their lifestyle and personality. She’s dedicated to helping individuals find opportunities to build their wealth and achieve entrepreneurial success, and I’m so happy to have Liz on the show. This has been a long time coming interview. She’s one of the really great ones in franchising. You’re going to love this interview, so let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (01:21):
My name is Liz Leonard. I am an author of Your Franchise Fast Pass and I’m really excited to talk about all things franchising today.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:29):
Well, it’s so wonderful to have you on the show here. We’ve known and worked together for many years now, and I’m really excited to have you on to talk about your new book, Your Franchise Fast Pass. So let’s just start with some basics that we always like to ask authors is what led you to write this book?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (01:46):
Yes, it’s a great question. I’ve reflected on it many times and during COVID, I was working with a lot of candidates that were looking for more resources and tools and education, and I actually have an education background. I thought, “What can I do to help these people be more informed and have access to the tools versus checking their email box?” So we developed an online portal for our candidates so they’re able to log in, they can access every step. There’s eight modules, but it really teaches them from A to Z on the proper steps in evaluating a franchise, which you and I both know takes six to eight weeks, which is a lengthy period of time and it should be, but they can log in, they can learn about how to read a franchise disclosure document. We give them a glossary of terms. I won’t go into all the details, but there’s just some great information in there, but we want to make sure they check every box and we don’t miss a step because they all matter. They’re very important steps to reinforce.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:45):
Absolutely. So you created this learning management tool to help your prospective franchisees get educated on the process and go through that. So as you were thinking about writing the book is that really the audience that you were thinking of?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (03:01):
Yeah, that is absolutely my audience is people that have been dreaming about, have thought about it, might have feared to actually research it to find out if they actually have what it takes to own a franchise. And the book really defines the market, what a franchise is, the relationship with a franchisor versus being a franchisee. That is definitely why I wrote the book. That is my audience. And of course, we had to name the online learning management system something so we thought, “What is out there that is fun and has a ring to it?” And we came up with Your Franchise Fast Pass. And I’m really glad we came up with that name because essentially with the learning management system and working with an expert by your side, you can move up closer to the front of the line because we do put them in touch with companies and we want to make sure that we do it the right way.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (03:56):
We don’t fast-track anything, but again, with the learning management system, working with an industry veteran like myself, we’re really trying to make sure they make informed decisions. They turn over every rock and they look at more than one brand and really make sure that they’re vetting out the companies. But at the same time, inside the learning management system, we have a comparison chart for them to fill out too. So they can actually list pros and cons of each brand, it’s something they talk about with their family and their spouse, but that is the audience and that’s why we put everything together. So it’s been a great little package put together, but it’s taken a long time. So I’m really excited and thrilled to be on here today and to say the book is finally on Amazon after 16 months.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (04:39):
Congratulations. I know it really truly is a labor of love and writing a book and doing what you did. Well, for the audience, let’s just say someone who tunes into this hasn’t read the book yet, how might you summarize the book?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (04:52):
Yeah, I’d be happy to do that. So it is a quick read. It’s 123 pages. We do have it on Audible in case they would prefer to listen versus read the book. There’s 10 chapters. So it’s really, again, I think well-defined and a short read and we’re breaking down all the different topics. A lot of people want to understand what franchising is, and there’s actually a lot of history to franchising that if you do the research, you’ll be like, “Oh wow, that’s been around since the 1800s or even before.” So we share information. We also want to make sure that we leverage their skills. And inside the portal, we have a skills assessment for everybody to take too because everybody can’t wear every hat and they can’t have every strength.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (05:35):
And if we can identify and leverage the strengths and the weaknesses while we can lean on the franchisor when it comes to sales, marketing, operations, accounting, and finance, we want to understand, “Okay, what role is the owner going to have?” So we spent a lot of time in the book talking about the role of the owner and how you can leverage the systems of a franchise. And then making the best decision, talking about how they can leverage my online learning portal, which is called Your Franchise Fast Pass. And then overcoming fear. Everybody has fear. Every single person that I’ve helped in 10 years had fear. And now our meetings are all done on Zoom, so you can see the fear and we talk about it.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (06:14):
So we try to take a tactical approach to, “What are we going to do about this fear? We got to park it somewhere.” My mantra is to make sure we replace the fear with the facts. And I write about that in the book as well. Exit strategy is really, I think, important and we don’t talk about it enough and that is towards the tail end of the book, but why do people get into businesses? Are they looking to replace their salary? Maybe. Are they looking to build a family legacy? Possibly. Are they looking to build cash flow and sell their business someday? For most people, that’s the goal. So, we also put that in there too. And we did, obviously, interview eight franchisees and a couple of funding companies, so I think we put it all together, Tom. We just wrapped it up with a bow.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:59):
It’s an easy read and I mean that as a compliment. It really flows well and especially for someone who’s new to franchising or just diving in, you do a great job of making it approachable and easy.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (07:13):
And it is a lengthy process and they do need to commit hours of time and documentation and phone calls and Zoom meetings, so they have to immerse themselves. So I’m hoping this will be a great stepping stone when they start talking to companies.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (07:29):
One of the lines in the book that I actually made a big note of and wanted to bring up is you talk about job security at your corporate job. You said, “It’s an illusion because just like magic, it disappeared.” I’d love for you just to share where that came from and what that means.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (07:47):
I’m sure you talk to many people that are obviously developing franchises. I talk to people that are looking to purchase franchises and many of them have been either faced with ageism or they’ve been laid off. And lo and behold, that happened to me. And I thought, just like everybody else, “This will never happen to me. I’m in healthcare. I work for national companies. I’m protected. I have security.” And I got the call that the 14 skilled nursing facilities that I was managing with marketing with all the admin teams and I was responsible for the whole state, that I wasn’t needed the next day.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (08:26):
And it was our wedding anniversary and I will never forget it. And I took it personally. I really took it personally and I thought, “That’s it. I’m not going back. It was taken away from me, it was out of my control, and now I need to actually shift to, ‘Oh, I have freedom. What am I going to do with the freedom now?’” So like many people, we figured it out, my husband Paul and I, and we’ve invested in several businesses and one of them is a franchise, but it did disappear in front of my eyes and we did not go out to dinner that night, by the way. That’s how personal I took that.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:06):
Wow. One of the things that we were talking about pre-show was about emerging franchise brands and emerging franchisors. Certainly, a lot of the audience that will tune in are either maybe thinking of franchising their business or are in that emerging franchise brand grouping. And I’m just curious if you wouldn’t mind sharing as an experienced franchise consultant and franchise broker and someone who’s owned franchises, run businesses, and now advising others through it, are there some things you found that you might suggest or recommend as maybe some best practices for emerging franchisors when they start thinking about working with a professional like you and some of the things that you’d be looking for in a brand? And I know many franchise brokers out there aren’t even interested in emerging franchise brands for a wide variety of reasons, but anything you’d like to add in there?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (10:02):
I do think that is a loaded question. So I’ll start with, I think that it matters who the founder of the franchise is, what their background is. Have they operated a business in the past? How many corporate units did they start with? Was it 10, was it two, is it one? And what has their experience been? And I also think it’s important to analyze the financials of where they came from, the stability of the company, because you know better than I do, but when you are franchising a young brand, you do need to make sure you’re well capitalized because you need to be able to manage and train and honor every franchisee that comes into that system. So just as an example, some of the larger brands have business coaches as a new franchisee for onboarding, and some of the younger companies don’t have that.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (10:52):
So there’s a lot of missing links. Will they have them at some point? They will, likely, but you need to choose the mindset that, “I’m going in as a pioneer. I’m going to take this risk.” And it is a much bigger risk from a financial perspective in terms of investing your money with somebody that might not have a track record. And in the book, we talk a little bit about emerging brands and mature brands, but we are looking for a track record. But I would say one of the most important attributes of these companies and for the franchisees is to talk to owners. So when you have a very young brand, you’re not able to validate. And validate means asking questions of owners and spending time with them. We actually give our candidates a list to make sure they actually uncover, again, the sales, the marketing, operations, accounting, finance, every platform that franchisor has.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (11:45):
And we want them to ask the right questions. So when you’re doing that research with a young company and they can’t answer all those questions, you need to be ready to accept that and say, “Okay, the risk is continuing.” And one of the pieces that we measure with candidates is, “What is your risk tolerance?” And many people are not willing to take that risk. So I’m very cautious with emerging brands. There’s just a lot of pieces from training and support and being well-capitalized. And I think, again, having the corporate units and having the experience to work through all the kinks, we call them twists and turns in franchising, and that’s where you learn. We all learn by doing, and that’s really what we want.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:30):
It is not uncommon for an emerging franchisor to think, “Oh, well, I’m just going to list my franchise in some broker networks and I’m going to sell a thousand of these things because everyone’s going to want to sell it.” And it’s not that simple. They don’t always understand that there are other franchise brands, as you had mentioned, that have 50, 100, 200-plus franchises that are more mature, that are growing, that have a stronger track record. At the end of the day, it’s just time that’s been able to pass and allow them to have some success in franchising.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (13:04):
Yeah. And I’ll just add, we definitely have a few emerging brands that I can think of right now, five or six of them, that I have worked with. The founder actually has already built a franchise system and he sold it and he came back to do a different industry. Now that is a different conversation. So they have the experience, they’ve built the systems, they’re well capitalized, they know what they’re doing.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:28):
Before we make a quick transition here in the show, how can someone get a copy of your book? Where can they find this?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (13:35):
I think the first place, the easiest place is to go to what we call the book website, which I’ve learned a lot. We have a dedicated book site, it’s called franchisefastpassbook.com. There’s a little bit of information about me and then, obviously, how to access the book. We do have some book bonuses too. Obviously, it’s on Amazon so they can go there, which is easier, which is where the Audible is. And I know a lot of people are out doing their daily walks and it’s easy to listen to an Audible. So there’s a couple of places they can find it.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:03):
Wonderful. And we’ll make sure we include those links in the show notes as well. Well, we make a transition here. We ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we like to ask is, have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (14:17):
I have a great miss. I left my corporate job, I’m aging myself now, in 2006, and we opened a $1.2 million child care center. Sounds like a lot and it was. Now, if we all remember what happened in 2006, the next year, we got hit with a recession. So we were very excited, launched the business, obviously, with a recession. I had never lived through a recession. We will be reading about this in the history books, right? And it was a learning experience and it was not a franchise.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (14:54):
So when you’re doing an independent business, which I referenced in the book as well, there’s pros and cons to both, you have to pivot and make quick decisions. And I know I had a couple of misses in those couple of years, but due to the market and just elements out of my control, I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decisions. But when you’re making them in a recession, it’s just a different environment to describe. But we did not raise our rates. We wanted to honor and respect the families. Moms had to go back to work. So we definitely had a couple of misses, but we definitely had a couple of big wins too.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:33):
Let’s talk about, on the other side here, make or two a highlight.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (15:37):
Yeah, a great highlight. So we talk about essential service businesses, that seems to be the buzzword post-COVID, and childcare is a demand-driven industry. And no matter what, parents have to continue working because they have mortgages and cars and all kinds of other responsibilities. So our waitlist grew and it was a blessing because I was very nervous, so was my husband, with everything on the line with an SBA loan at that level and a mortgage of 10 grand of the SBA. So everything needed to work, right? And I think that we were blessed to have the waitlist and to have moms go back to work. So it was kind of a silver lining.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (16:20):
I love these two questions because I actually lived it, right? It was a hardship, but then the silver lining came out of it. But I will share one other win. When we were launching this business, and you’ll appreciate this, Tom, I didn’t want to do it alone. Almost like franchising, I knew I needed kind of a Sherpa, if you will, an expert in my industry. So I was introduced to Fran and Ty in California. They had 14 schools in the Silicon Valley. They were employer-sponsored programs. I flew out and met her, and this was in 2005, and introduced myself and said, “I need your help.” And they’d never consulted before. They were just running their schools.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (17:01):
They had three girls, they were busy. So I toured around all of their schools and I was just amazed with the efficiencies and the parents and the children and the curriculum. And at the end of my visit, she said, “I’m going to help you. You remind me of me. I’m going to charge you a fee of $65,000. You will have access to every one of my systems, all my vendors, all my discounts, all of my employee handbooks, the policies, the parent policies.” And I was just so grateful. And it built confidence and courage and it endorsed my product and service. And looking back, my business would not have been such a success without her. There’s no way. So I had an expert working by my side and I paid for it.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:54):
What a great story and testament too for your interest in pursuing that and following up and that they offered that consulting as part of that and that training. Phenomenal. Well, Liz, let’s talk about a multiplier or two that you’ve used to maybe grow yourself, your business, or your continued professional development.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (18:15):
I will share too, we talked about demand-driven industries, which I’m in franchising and we talk about industries all the time. So once we actually exited and sold our school, which we don’t have time to talk about today, we actually had a buyer approach us because our school was doing so well and I never planned on selling. And when you have an independent business, it’s great to launch it and it’s so much work to do a startup, but then it’s another lane of work to actually get it packaged up to sell it. So I had to learn all of that too, and that was wonderful. But we were able to sell in 2010, we had the business almost four years and we actually sold it, this is good humor, to one of the C-suite executives at a bank that turned us down for our SBA loan. He and his wife bought our business. So it was kind of cool.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (19:07):
And we shifted very quickly after that. And opportunities arise in businesses all the time. We were able to acquire an existing self-storage business. So we actually kept the real estate, sold the operating company, and then bought a self-storage business. And we actually just sold that recently. We’ve always tried to improve and grow and build our portfolio. And I talk about that. It’s really similar to the Rich Dad Poor Dad CASHFLOW Quadrant, you’re always diversifying and building. And now, for me, being a franchise advisor for over 10 years, we also own a Kitchen Tune-Up franchise. I feel that experience and that growth has been just amazing. And then now we have the book. I feel I’m always focusing on myself and trying to better who I am and who I can help.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:54):
What great irony that the banker that turned you down ends up buying the business after you show now it’s successful and now he and his wife are interested in acquiring it. That is just wonderful irony. Well, the final question we ask every guest, Liz, is what does success mean to you?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (20:13):
I think for me, and I meet a lot of candidates too, my personality is I want to help people. And I went to school to be a teacher, obviously shifted into healthcare, but now I’m still able to use the education background and that passion and mission that I have. Everything that I have done in life, I’ve been able to either coach, teach, support, help, facilitate. And for me, that defines success. And that’s one of the reasons why I was motivated to spend a grueling 16 months putting together a book with a publishing company is I want to leave a legacy with people. I want them to know who I am, how I can help them, how I can advocate and make their dreams happen because I’ve done it.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:59):
Fantastic. Well, as we bring this to a close, Liz, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (21:07):
I think the only other thing to share, and I’m actually writing an article for a magazine right now, the PR company’s been great to get me opportunities, but people think they need to have a million dollars to buy a business, and that is not true. That’s a myth in our industry. And there are a lot of different resources out there, but we do help identify, obviously, their threshold for investment, but we also teach them and coach them that, “You might want to talk to these four or five people and they might help you understand how you can either get funding for the business, how you might be able to use your retirement account with the ROBS program.”
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (21:47):
So these are all the backend that we help people with. So I want everybody to know that you don’t need to have a million dollars to buy a business. Now, I referenced mine. Mine was different. Mine came with a 10,000-square-foot building, both of them, self-storage and childcare. But if you look at any of the home service brands in franchising, which is another best-kept secret in franchising, they don’t require a brick-and-mortar location and they can be under 200,000. So I just want to get that out there because I hear it all the time.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (22:19):
I think that’s very well said and a great point. Well, Liz, this has been an absolutely fantastic interview. I’m so thankful for your time and look forward to getting this out there so people can get a copy of your book. Or maybe for someone who’s not interested in buying a franchise, chances are you may know someone who is. And this is just a great resource to get them on that journey and pathway of gaining some information as they start to explore buying into a franchise system.
Liz Leonard, Franchise Advisor (22:48):
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Tom. It’s great to see you too. I haven’t seen you for a little while, so thank you.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (22:56):
Liz, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. It’s such an honor and a privilege to have had you. And let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is when Liz talked about buying a franchise and to replace your fear with the facts. And I thought that was a great nugget in how she helps her clients and the people she advises and works with to help them replace the fear with the facts. Takeaway number two is from her book, and it was a line that really jumped out to me, and it’s when she talks about how she lost her corporate job. And in her book, it says she had been laboring for all those years under an illusion of security.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:37):
And she called it an illusion because just like magic, her job disappeared. And I thought that was a great description because so many people who have gotten into franchising or started their own business or have launched into something is because of this illusion that she described so well of this “secure” corporate job. Takeaway number three is when Liz and her husband ended up selling the childcare business that they had started to the original banker or loan officer that had denied their original loan request. And I thought that was great irony, but also, it’s a great reminder that you never know when your paths might cross again in the future. And now it’s time for today’s win-win.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (24:31):
So today’s win-win is when Liz talked about a common misconception or misunderstanding with franchising that oftentimes she runs into people who think in order to buy a franchise, they need a million dollars or more. And she said, “That’s just not true.” And for myself being in franchising for over 20 years at this point, she’s right, you don’t need over a million dollars to buy a franchise. Some of them cost that much, but not all of them. There are plenty that you can get into for much less than that, and I think that’s a great lesson learned because whether you’re buying a franchise or selling a franchise that’s under a million dollars, it’s just a good reminder that these types of lower cost franchise opportunities exist.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:18):
I think Liz’s book is perfect to introduce someone who’s new to franchising, so make sure you check that out as well. So that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise your business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.