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[00:00:00] Greg Mohr:

You’re going to be paying a franchise fee. You’re going to pay royalties. So what you were looking for with that investment into that franchise system, where you have that business model franchise that you’re investing in, you’re looking to have them get you to where you want to be. Probably, you know, 2, 3, 4 years quicker than if you were to have to go out there and do everything else yourself.

So you want those systems in place you want. You want the ongoing support, because that is what you’re paying for.

[00:00:30] INTRO:

This is experts unleashed, revealing how professionals and entrepreneurs transform experience into Gama while positively impacting the world for years, Joel, or way has helped entrepreneurs develop and launch their expert based business.

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Let’s get started.

[00:01:13] Joel Erway:

Hey, what’s going on, everybody. Joel Erway here and welcome to a very special episode of experts, unleashed guys and gals. I am pumped for today’s special guests. Got a very special episode for you here today. I’ve got a very good friend of mine, Greg Mohr from franchise Maven. And today we are going to be diving into something that.

I’m going to be honest with you. I am extremely fascinated to learn about it has been something that I have considered for a long time considered before I started my entrepreneurial career. I would bet that a lot of you have considered this in some stage of your entrepreneurial career or some stage in your business.

Maybe you even own one of these, but we are going to be talking about franchises today. Greg is a one of the foremost leading experts in franchising opportunities. He is a consultant for many of the franchises that are at many of the biggest franchises out there. He’s a wall street journal, bestselling author.

And so I am extremely excited to treat this as a free consulting session. Sorry, I’m going to be a bit selfish here but I want to pick his brain and we’re gonna have a lot of fun and talk all things franchising. So by the end of this, you will know as much as you possibly can. The common questions that most people have when exploring franchises, all the different types of franchises, you know what franchise fits our lifestyle, what franchise fits, you know, your goals.

And without further ado, let’s jump right into it. Greg, welcome to the show. Greg, I’m excited to have you here.

[00:02:44] Greg Mohr:

Joel, great to be here. I appreciate you having me.

[00:02:49] Joel Erway:

And Greg, where are you located right now? Where are you based?

[00:02:49] Greg Mohr:

Licking Missouri, L I C K I N G out in the Ozarks the

[00:02:56] Joel Erway:

Ozarks, I would say the only thing that I really, aside from St. Louis, everyone always can point to like the Ozarks. And so I was like, how close is that to the Ozarks spoke my only recollection of, of Missouri, but I’m excited, man. I’m excited to dive in for my listeners who are tuning in right now. Can you give us a quick context, a quick background of, you know your experience with franchises?

Because I tried to do as much justice as I could with the introduction, but give a formal introduction as to as to your.

[00:03:25] Greg Mohr:

Well, actually, you know, the funny thing is when I first started out working in the working world, how back in high school is when I got my first introduction to franchising and I worked for taco bell and there was a master franchises.

I owned a whole bunch of taco bells over in the Sacramento, California area. And after working in there for a little while, when I was like 16, I moved up to become a manager. And then I started managing their taco bells all over the Sacramento area. Real fun, really easy to do, just step into each one. And they see how the oldest policies and procedures in place is really simple to go from one to the other.

And what she had me do was build up her sales, each one of her different ones. So that was my very first foray into franchising. I actually left there after a while and went into the corporate world. I’ve got a degree in engineering and physics and did that, but eventually got back to the franchising world itself after Mike’s a little spent in restaurant management probably about 15 years engineering.

About 15 years then came back. Franchising after getting laid off of all things and then it, by myself, a franchise or invested in one, I found myself a couple of franchise consultants that helped me out. It just took off from there and I decided to get into the franchise consulting world. And here I am today.

[00:04:38] Joel Erway:

So you started when you were 16 years old, you’ve worked at taco bell, right. That was your first experience in a bricks and mortar franchise, right? Correct. So what happened like when you were 16 and you’re so young, right? You’re probably just doing it to make some money and get a side job, but like, you know, when you experienced it, was there something that kind of, you know, when you were 16 years old, was there something that kind of turned you on to the art of like what was happening with franchises?

Like, did you really understand the taco bell was a franchise and there are other locations, like, did you see the opportunity of possibly someday owning your own taco bell or not that point when you were, when you were 16 years?

[00:05:18] Greg Mohr:

You know, when I first started out, no, you’re right. I just wanted a job. And I just knew that people that were running that particular one, the managers that ran it and I went and applied for, and I got the job after I started working in it all the while.

That’s when I really got into and started realizing what franchising was all about. It’s just like, fuck work. I mean, I’ve, I won’t, I probably could two jobs. I think when I was 16, I also worked in a restaurant, you know, bus boy, that sort of thing. Then I found the big difference between the privately owned and the franchise owner.

Was it that the franchise will, when it just, it was like clockwork, it just ran real smoothly. There was everybody knew what exactly they had to do. They had the outlines of all of their jobs and we had everything and it could have been, maybe the managers were a little bit different who knows, but it just seemed like ran a lot smoothly.

Cause they always, they always had everything laid out with the job descriptions, what you do, how much you prep when you do it. And when I, and that was in Woodland, California, then I wouldn’t help out in date. California as well. And I found what I walked into. There was the exact same thing. Again, you can do the exact same thing all over again, because everything again was just laid out.

What else? Moving? And that’s when it started looking at me, it’s like, this is a franchise, you know, it started telling me this is a franchise not privately owned. I’m like, wow, that’s really good. So I can walk into anyone and you don’t get the same exact thing over and over again. And they’re like, yeah, we’ve got it all laid out.

Here’s the plan. Here’s the procedures. Here’s our manual. So you just go in there, read those. If you’re a manager it’s real simple to operate, this is the number of people you need at this point in time, these stations, this is all going to cook this woman prep. It’s like, wow, I don’t know who thought I’d have ever did, man.

[00:06:48] Joel Erway:

That’s a great idea. So when you, you, you got your degree in engineering and physics, then you came back, you know since you got laid off and that’s when you decided to invest in your first franchise, what was the first franchise that you invested in schooling?

[00:07:00] Greg Mohr:

Mitchell, telecommunications consulting, French.

Kind of a big word that there, the school around now. Great guy. That’s when I got probably my second time, I got into a franchise again, and boy, you know, working with Dennis, he’s just an awesome individual. He at same thing again, when I got into that one, he had it outlined, you know, here’s a hundred different ways to go out there and get clients.

This is what you say to your clients. This is how you do it. You go out there and you get it done. So we work with business. People on their telephone needs. This was 10 years ago schooling Mitchell’s, you know, broadened out and do other cost savings areas as well. But they mostly do cost savings for our phone system back then.

So if you think about phone systems, you know, you think about, you know, I got three phones at home. I like to save some money on it. Not exactly what Dennis school he does. You’re looking at more like the office buildings where you have all those extensions, all of those lines laid out how to save them money on it, which is something that those businesses don’t think about on there.

So it was real fascinating for me. And get their bills and work with the Dennis’s systems to provide cost savings measures for those folks. And then you have to work with business owners. So you went around during the daytime. Nice, easy Monday through Friday meet with great individuals, interesting people all the time.

This was so much helping them out, how with their cost saving needs. Great franchise. Great question.

[00:08:18] Joel Erway:

Interesting. So that was your first franchise that you bought, right? That was your first franchise that you owned. Okay. So when you ran that did you have bricks and mortar or were you a, this is where I start to get a bit confused with like the franchise model.

And so I’m gonna ask, you know, the five-year-old questions just because I, I would rather me ask the dumb questions then, you know, my listeners have to, you know, expose themselves. So, you know, I’ll play the dumb card, right. So this is where I always got confused with the franchise model. Do you have to have a bricks and mortar, or can you be like an independent sales rep and you know, is that considered like a franchise or, you know, then I look at like, you know, the state farm agencies, are they considered franchises?

I guess I’m, I guess I’m really kind of looking for the true definition of what is a franchise, because I see a lot of things that kind of skirt it or are very similar, but might be a bit tangential. So what is the true definition of a quote-unquote franchise?

[00:09:20] Greg Mohr:

So you look at it, a business model franchises, what you’re doing, you’re buying, you’re investing into the business model.

They’re on that one. So what you’re looking for in the franchise system. Yeah. So there’s, so back up a little bit, you’re a business you’ve just developed something that’s great and make it a lot of money you want to expand. So basically you’ve got a couple of different ways to go with that is you keep total control of it.

And you invest your money and you go out and build another location. Okay. Take another step back brick and mortar franchises where the service franchise. So say you have a brick and mortar check franchise where you have a building where you have a build-out you want to expand. You’re going to go out and invest in another building.

Get that changed over into whatever model that you have. As far as that franchise goes, you invest your money. You hire the people you’re in charge of that manager. You get all the profits minus you know, your expenses, but you’ve now invested all of your money to do that. So the other way that you can go is you can go to the franchising system, the franchising route, that is where you have somebody else invest their money into it.

So now you look for somebody in that area that you want to expand out into. They invested their money into getting that work and mortar location. In this case, we’re talking about brick and mortar that built out, done that. So now they’re investing their money. Now you don’t get all those. So generally speaking, the franchise world T’s run between five and 10%.

So you’re getting about five and 10%. So you’re not getting all the profits, but then again, you’re not investing all your money, do it. So you’re getting a great nudity on that one. So those are the two different ways you go the franchising route, because you do want to expand out quickly. You’re probably looking to expand a little bit quicker because obviously if you use your money, there’s only so much you can do.

And so quickly you can build out because now you’re responsible for hiring, overseeing all those managers, all those different locations. Whereas with the franchise, now you’ve got somebody else that’s doing it for you and you just oversee that particular person. Got it. Now you can, it doesn’t have to be a brick and mortar tech franchise.

There’s art. There’s basically two different types. The brick and mortar, and which is what most people know about. Most people see those, you’re driving down the road and you see your, McDonald’s see your taco bells. And as you asked on there, some of these businesses like the insurance company, some of them do the franchise route, some of them don’t on that one.

So it just depends on their, their model and how they do it. You can also go into the services industry where you don’t necessarily need to have anything built out with that. So it was services industry. You can go two different routes there. In my particular case, what I did with school at initials, I didn’t need an office.

Since I went out and visited with my clients all the time, they don’t come see me. I go out and see them. That’s something that we can essentially work from home on that one. You’re just going out and you’re traveling. Now, there are some franchises server franchise, where you will need a small office staffing franchises.

For instance, you might get a lot of walking traffic, something like that. Or you need a place to interview people or like a Sandler. Sales training franchise, where you might need a big room where you get groups of people together and into that. And so then you would need like a small office, something like the opportunity to go to different routes with that one total investments for those a little bit different.

So obviously the brick and mortar, you’ve got the building, you’re doing a little bit more of an investment, a $250,000 probably on up from there, the total investment. Whereas with the services industry, you’re probably looking at around $150,000 total investment give or take on those ones. So big difference.

And the other difference when people come in and talk to me is that when I mentioned the service industry, those since you don’t see those, your clients basically don’t know you exist until they need you, whereas with a brick and mortar, you build it and they will come with a great franchise system. We should be looking for location for you with a brick and mortar.

They will tell the service industry you can need. Oh, great franchise. It’s going to go out. And when the need does arise, the clients perceive and they’ll want to use your services. Paul Davis restoration, a couple of restoration companies are probably good examples of that one 800 water damage. Paul Davis restoration.

They’re huge. So, you know, want to hear the water damage part of the bill for group, they did all of the Europe, half the clean up full Katrina. And Paul Davis is pretty much sold out throughout the entire country. It’s so large, but if you’ve never had water, fire smoke damage, and you never need it that’s or knew anybody they did.

You wouldn’t know about that franchise that was out there.

[00:14:03] Joel Erway:

She never knew. Got it. So is it safe to say maybe this is a a false assumption, but it sounds like in the franchise world, really somebody would invest in a franchise for. The systems operations and, and procedures and the value that they would bring to the table would be more so expanding into a new territory and the sales engine.

So they are the face in the sales. I’m trying to go get the clients are trying to go get increased exposure. I would say, is that, is that relatively accurate?

[00:14:37] Greg Mohr:

That’s correct. So what you’re looking for in a franchise system, as opposed to doing it yourself and this is where some of my true entrepreneurs like yourself that have gone out and done these things on their own.

This is where I kind of get run into a little bit of a challenge with those folks is that you’re going to be paying a franchise fee, generally $50,000 a month. You have to pay royalties again, as I indicated between about five and 10%. So what you were looking for with that investment into that franchise system, where you have that business model franchise that you’re investing in, you’re looking to have them get you to where you want to be.

Probably, you know, 2, 3, 4 years before. Than if you were to have to go out there and do everything else yourself. So you want those systems in place. You want the training, you want the ongoing support because that is what you’re paying for. Now. The total investment is going to be different with that. So it’s going to vary by franchise, but if you are getting into a franchise, that is what you are looking for.

You want them to get you to where you want to be that much quicker three or four years quicker than if you were to do it yourself. And for my true entrepreneurs like yourself, how that’s something that only you can determine whether or not it’s worth paying that extra money to get there. Some do some don’t.

[00:15:48] Joel Erway:

So let’s kind of talk about like the different types of entrepreneurs that are considering franchising, right. What would you say are the most common types of franchises that people consider and the least common types of franchises that people consider? So I kind of want to look at both spectrums and then, and then start to kind of.

You know, unearth what each presents in terms of an opportunity, cause I’m sure you have exposure to lots and lots of different types of franchises. And you already mentioned there’s service franchises, then you’ve got, you know, your restaurant franchises. Why don’t we start here? What type of franchise today in 2022 presents the highest opportunity for growth in your opinion, because you have exposure to everything.

Like, what do you feel is kind of at the forefront of the growth cycle, what type of franchise lately?

[00:16:44] Greg Mohr:

The home services, franchises. That part has been the strongest growing franchises that we have seen in our system and the home services that we’ve been. I’m just putting lots and lots of people in have been oddly enough, pretty simple ones.

Mosquito control that’s control have been just outstanding. Everybody needs those, then you’ve got. You know, the do it yourself. Thing has been going on for years. You’ve seen the deep DIY things, this going on for your soul garage, remodeling, kitchen, remodeling, those sort of things. And over the last couple of years it’s just been even more growth because now you’ve got people that are at home and they haven’t been going out anywhere on vacation here the last couple of years.

So it’s gotten even more growth because now they’re sitting around the house, not going on vacation, looking at Dallas, going, Hey, I’m going to fix something around here. I don’t like that. I never noticed that before. You know, they’d been at work all the time. They haven’t met her home quite that much. So they don’t really know us, but now with them being an old, they’re just like, this needs to be fixed.

That needs to be fixed. You know, you watch all those deal. I think she can think I can do that. And that’s pretty cool. That’s pretty easy. But then when it comes down to it, they’re like maybe not. So we’ve seen those grow amazingly well on there. The other thing. Oddly enough, you know, there’s a big thing about going with electric cars and you know, everybody’s switching over those, but the other franchise system that we’ve done a lot with is oil changes.

Believe it, or not very simple. Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of different oil change companies out there have just been going nuts. People like that basic simple model, they like, so that’s kind of the difference now between going for the services industry, the home improvement, which is, you know, the services, you don’t need an office or you don’t need a brick and mortar, maybe a small office.

We think that going to the people that just like, I’m more of the brick and mortar tech people that really just want a building to do something with a soil changes, Strickland brothers oil change has gone, gotten that to cost of oil has gotten that. So those are a couple of good ones. They continue to grow and then the other one’s good.

There’s going to be up and coming. That’s going to go. It’s corporate cleaning. When you get into a corporate blaming corporate cleaners and I go, ah, that sort of thing gets, obviously the offices have needed cleaning before. They’ve always used cleaning, so it’s always been good, but now there’s more of a push to get it down a little bit more often.

Cause you want to get that sanitized, but make certain that, you know, there’s no germs on there. So good one to watch them continue to grow
[00:19:21] Joel Erway:

so I can echo the home services opportunities. So just in my experience, working with a couple of clients, they’ve started home services, businesses, and they have just exploded.

And you know, in 2020 when everything’s shut down, I mean, the very first thing that we did was we went out, we hired a painter, let’s go paint the house. Let’s go do this. Let’s go do that. I mean, we probably spent $15,000 on home services projects just like that. And then everyone was booked out. It’s good to see that that has still continued the trend.

That’s fascinating. So those are kind of the highest growth opportunities now. What about the most unique franchise opportunities that people probably wouldn’t consider? I know you already kind of mentioned a couple, like I had no idea oil changes was a franchise opportunity. Right. But what other some, what are some other unique ones that people probably didn’t even know existed?

[00:20:14] Greg Mohr:

Well, if you do like pets and you enjoy working outdoors all the time, then one unique one that actually makes a whole lot of money is duty calls of all things. So when you probably haven’t heard about, but not everybody likes cleaning up those little up piles in the, in the yard and amazingly enough, they’ll actually pay somebody else to do it.

So that is unique. What, and they make, they make really good money. I mean, they’re probably making more than if you were in a corporate world on that and keep them on all these franchises. You’re not the one doing the work. You don’t work in the franchise, you work on it. You have other people that are for you.

I have to find other people to do that for you, but that’s a very unique one, but what is really good money? Like, can we, can we quantify that it’s hard to quantify that because in our business, the federal trade commission really restricts, well, we can say on that, but in the six figure incomes for some of those franchises, some of those service franchises, they have to what they are.

That’s what they put together for you to do is to bring in a good, solid six figure income with one territory. They’ll give you enough people to do that. So if you go out and do it, all their procedures, follow the policies, then it is doable for you do. And they’ll. And I was still, I can’t tell people how much they make.

Unfortunately, you know, they give us all these numbers. They tell us numbers, but federal trade commission was fix it. But I know what they’re going to hear when they get on the phone with the franchisees. So I know with franchises depending on what they want to do. So I’ll know what the money, what they’re going to hear as far as what they’re going to do every day.

What kind of money they’re going to bring. So I can put them on the phone with, with franchises where I know they’re going to be hearing what they want to hear. So if they want something in this six-figure income, then I know I can direct them towards certain franchises that when they get on the phone with the franchisees, the franchisees can tell them exactly how much they make that’s.

Okay. So that’s what we put them on the phone with the franchisees. And I got to have a good idea of what they’re going to hear from the franchisees, because if they want to replace a corporate income and the franchisees making $25,000 a year they’re just going to laugh me out of it, out of business on that one.

So a good, good money is, you know, a good solid six figure income, replace your corporate income, how the potential is there for these.

[00:22:27] Joel Erway:

That’s awesome. One of the things that comes to mind when considering franchises, and this is just me, personally, my personality type a. I wasn’t sure if I fit the personality type to run a franchise, because I didn’t really know if I was the operational type or if I was the visionary type, I leaned more towards the visionary type where I just liked lots of opportunities, not one to kind of follow systems.

So what type of personality is best suited for owning and running a franchise? Is it that systems oriented person or is it more so the opportunist type of entrepreneur there’s

[00:23:08] Greg Mohr:

opportunities for both types out there what’s going to happen when you’re going through the franchise investigation process is we’re going to get together and I’m going to find out what you’ve done in the past.

What, what are your experiences? What do you bring to the table? Then I go out and look for franchises that tell me, and this is what they tell us the franchise to tell us, this is who we are looking for in April to fill franchisee. So I direct them each other towards each other, because I know each one is looking for the other.

So whether you’re the visionary or the operational. So the franchise itself is going to start asking you a lot of questions. So I’ve got a pretty good idea that this was probably the franchise view with the franchise itself is going to dig a little bit deeper into your personality. Some of them are going to give you personality tests on there as well.

What they’re looking to do is to see what really are your core competencies. And I try and do the same thing. If they need something that you may be lacking in, then they’re going to be looking at you, hiring somebody that can fill that role so that you have that complimentary person in there. I’ll get a pretty good idea of what what your role, I have a real good idea of what your role is going to be once you get into that franchise.

So when I introduce you to that one I know that, you know, you are who they are looking for. But from your point of view, with the operational or the visionary type person all that will come out in our conversations and I’ll be able to direct you towards ones where they’re looking for folks like you.

So you can go both ways with that. Most of the time, just consider this. Most of the time people, the franchises are going to have you be the person that steers the organization runs your organization. So you’re going to be doing the hiring, whether it be a manager and then the manager hires employees, or you want to hire the employees yourself, you’re gonna be working on that business.

You’re not going to be working in that business. You’re not gonna be doing it. So they’re most of the time they’re going to want to get a little bit of a combination of operations, a little bit of vision, and you will have that to some extent your background and again, what you don’t have in there. Then they’re going to be, they’re going to tell you that, you know, this is the person you’re probably going to need to hire to help you out.

Comment those skills.

[00:25:20] Joel Erway:

That makes sense. Yep. So, you know, if you lack in something, then those, Hey, you need to hire this type of person for a highest OD success just based on your personality type. All right. Where would you say if there’s somebody who really isn’t a good fit for franchising, like, you know, sometimes it’s easier for us to kind of explain who this isn’t a good opportunity for more so than it is who this is a good opportunity for.

So who might be like a generic, bad fit for, for franchising?

[00:25:50] Greg Mohr:

You really, Really true. Independent entrepreneur is not, they’re probably the toughest ones to find franchises for because they, they ha know how to do it. They’ve done it themselves and they want to go out there and they want to do things their own way.

So if you’re looking and you’re just thinking that your way is the only way to do it, and you’re going to go in there. And, you know, if I start presenting franchise mature entrepreneurs and they say, well, I see waves that they can approve it already. It’s, you know, that’s just not going to be a good, this, this is not going to be a good fit for you.

The franchise has got a proven system. They’ve done it time and time again, you can as well through entrepreneur because you’ve done things before you can help them grow. But if you think you’re going to go in there and start changing things without knowing anything about the franchise system itself beforehand, then that’s not going to be a good fit.

And it’s coming out a few times. I bet a few of those things. I’m just like, you know, you know, I’ll tell you what, you go build up another business, come back to me, let’s turn it into a franchise. And that way, you know, you can tell people to do things because that’s where you really want to do. So my true down to earth, hardcore through entrepreneurs, tough calls, probably not, unless there, I got a couple of them that had been like six years old and they’re like, I know I’ve done it all before.

I just don’t want to do it again, but I want to have a business to run. So just find me something and I’ll, and I’ll follow the rules and I’ll follow the procedures, but I don’t want to go through that whole thing again, sometimes it works, but most of the time, the hardcore ones,

[00:27:22] Joel Erway:

so your independent trailblazers are, are not a good fit for running a franchise because their, their mindset’s more of like, gotta do things my own way, instead of saying, Hey, I’ve got this, I’ve got this blueprint.

I need to follow this blueprint. And and that’s my opportunity for success. Okay. That makes sense. Exactly. Awesome. So I guess like where do you see the world of franchising going? Right? Because everyone knows about the taco bells, the restaurants McDonald’s right. That’s, that’s kind of like your template franchise and a lot of people refer to, but like, have you seen the.

Franchise world change or the past two years, since the world has been locked down, has it changed for the better? Has it changed for the worst? Like what do you see as the future for, for franchising and like, what should people be aware of in, you know, whether or not this is something that they should consider or seriously should consider?

[00:28:22] Greg Mohr:

I want to say it has been getting a lot better with a lockdown. There’s been a lot of people who have realized that they have been doing the same thing for so long and they now last couple of years have had to change on their things have changed so much. So now, you know, you get into a routine and you like your agenda.

It’s a good routine. I leveraging, I guess, six dogs at 10 o’clock in the morning or 10 30 in the morning when it’s time for my break. If I’m still on the phone, they’re up in patient. Cause I’m in a routine, I get up, they know what it is when people get into that routine and they like it and they’re comfortable with it.

So a lot of people have been taken out of their comfort zones over the last couple of years. And I think that starts getting realized that, okay, maybe I should start looking at something different. I now had to do this things different. It wasn’t the end of the world. Well, for the most part, for me, a lot of people, you know, it might’ve been devastating, but for the most part, you know, making those changes of working from home and not, you know, doing the same thing over and over again wasn’t the end of the world.

So they’re starting to think now, what else, what other different things that I can do to change? So I can get the kind of lifestyle that I want to leave on that. So they like, you know, they maybe a little more schedule flexibility since they’ve been at home working that realize that they can still get work done.

So a lot of people have been getting into and looking at franchising over the last couple of years, a lot more of them have been doing that on their show. One of the things we see a lot of things changing about franchising is as you were asking, everybody wants to know how much money I can make. So for a while, though, when I first got started in there about 10 years ago, You know, we have the other franchise disclosure documents starting to say, you know, but probably don’t not everybody knows what the franchise disclosure documents do.

They give you a breakdown of what’s going on with the franchise. One of the things that they have in there is what they call their financial disclosures under item 19. When I first came into the business 10 years ago, there wasn’t a whole lot of franchises that necessarily collected the financial information from their franchisees and put them in there.

So they had financial disclosures on there on all their franchisees. And I see that changing a lot too. So a lot more franchises are gathering that information because that’s important information, you know, as you pointed out earlier, what can I make on there? They want to see that. So that’s been a good change as far as franchise and goes for the future.

So I’m getting a little bit more transparency as to, you know, what the average franchisee is making, but the lower end is making the higher end is making some, you can kind of get a feel for you know, the potential for you to get. So that’s on the plus side. So you want the downside as well. I think that the downside is some of the businesses and this goes not just for franchising, but all businesses is some of the challenges you run into with regular businesses.

You run into a franchise as well. You still got the people that you’ve got to consider that you’ve got to hire. You still got your supply chain issues that you’ve got to work with some of your parts for your vehicles and that sort of thing. Maybe more, maybe more costly. So you’ve got to adjust all those.

So, you know, your, your profits may take a hit on there, but I think that with a franchising system, especially a larger franchising system, you’ve got that, that group together. So you’ve got that group discount usually. So you’ve got a group of people that are buying in as opposed to something that’s privately owned, where you don’t necessarily have the, the group buying power on that.

You deal with the franchise, but there’s still things to consider, you know, restaurant franchises, when can. Are you having deliveries? Can you do takeout? That sort of thing. So you still have or you had that, I’m not sure you have it too much anymore. Hopefully that will go away pretty soon as well.

[00:31:56] Joel Erway:

So where do you see most franchisors get tripped up?

Like if they’re a first time buyer, you know, first time investor in a franchise, like where do you see the most struggle happened or the most common mistakes of, you know someone who might, who might not get up and running or not see the type of success? Like what are some of these obstacles that, you know, me or someone who’s considering investing in a franchise, what should I really be concerned with?

Like where do most people fail?

[00:32:25] Greg Mohr:

You really need to get to know the industry that you’re, that you’re getting into on that. A lot of people get in. They like the things that they see now when they see a lot of people lined up to go to a certain location, they see that as being the next best. But it may not be lasting a long lasting best thing.

So don’t get caught up in the hype of something that is just starting out and seems to be good. Know it will grow. Sometimes it’ll work out. Sometimes it won’t are obviously orange theory. Fitness was a great opportunity to get into, to begin with. Then it took off. Oh, great. So that was a good one, but there are some that may not be, so get to know the industry that you really to get to know as much as you can investigate that industry.

There’s many different reports that you can get out there. And there’s two reports that you can use, but don’t get caught up in just necessarily and just the hype of something that’s new and exciting realize what it is that you’re going to be doing on a regular basis. If you want to be real successful as a franchisee, then you want to talk to the franchisees who are making the most money in that franchise system.

Now the franchisor will point them out to you and they’ll direct you to them. Get on the phone with. Find out. What do you do every single day picture in your mind, yourself doing that? If you can picture yourself in your mind doing that on a regular basis, then chances are, you’re probably going to be pretty successful on that.

If you cannot, nobody think of that, you know, you know, I can change, I can make this, I can do this, but it’s going to be a little bit more challenging for you to do that. So you got to, and that’s why I usually present, you know, a few different franchises and have people look at a few different franchises.

So really you got to just picture that picture in your mind. What is your ankle? What are you trying to accomplish? Talk to the people that are making that kind of money, picture yourself, doing that, putting that picture altogether, what you want to do. You can picture yourself doing what they’re doing.

You’ve got it all got me on that one. And you can do that. You know, if you can’t then, then don’t.

[00:34:35] Joel Erway:

you know, that’s, that’s such a fascinating way to. Look at that meaning like there’s, I don’t think there’s any other, this might just be painting too broad of a brush or too broad assumption, but franchises give you such a unique opportunity.

Whereas, you know, starting your own business from scratch, like you don’t know what your daily routine is going to look like. Whereas if you were to look at a franchise, you were to call up a franchise owner. I mean, I think you nailed it. It’s like, if you want to know what your life is going to look like, you can actually see it in a mirror.

You can call someone and say, I mean, cause it’s, it’s, it’s an operating book, it’s a playbook, you know, you can call another fellow owners, what do you do daily to be successful? And you can’t really get that anywhere else. You can’t really do that with your own business. If you’re starting something from scratch.

Cause you are, you don’t know what that’s going to look like. So that’s the first thing I wanted to highlight there, which I, I thought was, was very well put. And the second thing that you mentioned, which. I think it needs to be a strong consideration for everyone considering franchises is, you know, not getting caught up in the hype because you’re investing in a partnership.

Like you want to make sure that you’re investing in a franchise. That’s going to be around there for a while, because if it’s not, you’re not going to have the support. You’re like, you want to make sure that your going up in a rocket ship instead of going down, investing in something that’s sinking. And so you know, maybe the people who are listening to this right now, maybe they already consider that, but I didn’t, you know, I, but I’m also an opportunity.

So I get really excited about stuff and I’ll just throw money at it. So I need to be tamed back a little bit, but that was, that was really well put. And so it, it, it opened some eyes for me. It opened some doors for me. Is there anything that that we’re missing, like w what are some of the most common questions that when somebody comes to you for a consulting advice, like, you know, your, your free to work with, I mean, one of the things that we talked about before we even hopped on this call is like, you know, it doesn’t cost anything to work with.

You, you know, you are a, a consultant for lots of different franchises. And so you help place your, that person who helps place the right investor to the right franchise, which I think is a brilliant, I mean, it’s, that’s, that’s great because now, you know, you’re not being pressured to go anywhere, right.

It’s like, help me make the right decision. The best decision for me helped me make the best decision for my family. Cause it’s not, it’s not a cheap investment to invest in a franchise, but what, what is, what would you say is the average investment to start up in a, in a franchise and just ballpark range?

[00:37:17] Greg Mohr:

Yeah. For brick and mortar, you’re probably looking average three, a hundred thousand 300. For an average total investment for somebody you have to build out burned $150,000 a total investment for your basic service industry.

[00:37:28] Joel Erway:

Got it. Yeah. So, I mean, that’s, that’s nothing to sneeze at, right? So you really want to make sure that you’re being guided to make the, the right and the best decision the best decision possible.

So when you have these conversations with potential franchise investors, you know, what are some of the most common questions that we haven’t covered yet in in this chat? Right. Is it more lifestyle focus? Is it, is it aligning their personal goals and their, their longterm goals? You know, what are some of the, maybe the top, top two questions that we haven’t discussed yet?

[00:38:04] Greg Mohr:

What do you expect a franchise to do for you? What are your expectations? Would that franchise, okay. That’s what I always ask them because, because yeah, you may come in with. Preconceived notions something that you’re not too sure about or that you think a franchise is going to do for you. They don’t, you may not know what a franchise is for you.

What is your expectation? What does that franchise going to do for you? And what is your goal? Do you have an exit plan? Have you thought that far in advance, what is your ultimate goal? What do you want your life to look like five to 10 years from now?

[00:38:40] Joel Erway:

Interesting. Those are the do, what do you feel is the most common response to the most successful franchise owners?

Like when they end up do making a decision, they do go invest. What are some common themes of the ones who are you end up having the most success to those questions?

[00:38:58] Greg Mohr:

They’re looking for a partner. When I ask them, what are your expectations for what that franchise is going to do for you? They said, I’m looking for a partner.

I’m looking for somebody that’s going to help me grow, help me reach those goals so we can do it together. That’s the biggest one as far as what is your. Ultimate goal. What are you trying to accomplish more likely than not? It’s going to be more time with family, more schedule, flexibility to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

Yeah. So then my role is to go out there and find a franchise that can do both freedom.

[00:39:35] Joel Erway:

That’s what everybody wants. That’s what a lot of people want. This is the ultimate desire. Yep. Awesome. Well, so Greg we’re going to do a second part to this interview, but before we do that second part I want to, you know, those of you who might be who might be interested to talk with Greg, Greg, I’m gonna drop your contact information now, and then we’ll wrap up with the second part of the interview that we’ll call the expert resilience section.

So go ahead and let you know, where can we send people to go check out or to go reach out to you at franchise Maven? So let’s drop some links and drop your contact information, and then we’ll wrap up with the second part of.

[00:40:12] Greg Mohr:

They go to my website, probably the easiest one, a franchise Maven, M a V as in Victor, E n.com on that one.
Then of course the email is pretty easy to just greg@franchisemaven.com on that. Now we’re just pick up the phone and give me a call 3 6 1 7 7 2 6 4 0 1, always happy to talk franchising.

[00:40:33] Joel Erway:

Awesome. And so of course we’ll drop, you know, franchise maven.com. There’ll be in the show notes and we’ll drop your email address.

Greg@franchisemaven.com. That’ll be in the show notes as well. So Greg, I want to move into I wanna move into the the second part of our interview and we are calling this the expert resilience piece. And so this is gonna be a lot of fun, right? So like we ask a lot of our guests, a series of questions because it really helps.

Helps show the character of experts. And I love getting you into the mind of of what entrepreneurs and what experts have to go through in order to accomplish their goals. And so I want to ask a series of questions and and we’ll kick it off. But the first question is you know, to be as successful as you are, you’ve probably had to bounce back from a low moment.

Can you take a minute to share with us a down moment in your life and how you practice resilience?

[00:41:27] Greg Mohr:

Yeah. When I got laid off, that was the biggest one that was that was weird. It gives you an art. And I worked in the semiconductor field for, for 15 years for a Motorola semiconductor. And then for Freescale semiconductor there, people getting laid off all the time left and right.

They were laid off, hired, laid off. Well, I mean, it’s a lot of them, but you know, you always want to think that you’re, you know, you’re one of the best of the year. You’re good, but I think I lost the interest and I think finally one of the managers figured out that I kind of lost interest. And the work.

And they said if the no word or the layout Elle was a tough one. So, but in a way it was, it was kind of a, one of those eye-opening moments where you’re like, all right, so here’s my two choices. Now I go back to the world of doing, as we spoken before that routine, getting a paycheck, doing the same thing going to work I’m done, or is it time to go back to when a, I remember when I worked at taco bell, I remember that was pretty cool.

I love working with that franchise system. So always in the back of my mind, I’d been franchising on that. And so I thought, and I’ll have to say probably what I forgot to mention or didn’t mention along the way there is that while I was working as an engineer, I also owned a dry cleaners with another engineer storage units, rental properties as well.

And we did that on the side as far as doing that. So I always kinda knew that I wanted something that I could do with my. But I took that opportunity that moment with getting, getting laid off. And they said, you’re out of here to say, now’s the time to do something with your life, where you’re doing something yourself, where you are taking control of your destiny rather than it being in the hands of an employer.

So I just went with it. I said, now is the time if you’re going to do it, now’s the time to find a franchise, get into that franchise. You have fun doing it and talk about, let’s see if we can have fun doing it again. I was 10 years ago and live in my dream today of doing what I want. One-on-one when that happened.

[00:43:30] Joel Erway:

Did you have a family where you, where you married? Like, did you have a safety net to fall back on? I mean, cause that’s a, that’s a pivotal moment. That’s a big shift. And it’s also, I’m assuming you were probably nervous, scared, like what types of emotions were going through your head when you know, you got laid off and then you were, you were trying to make that decision.

Of what to do next? Like how did that feel?

[00:43:54] Greg Mohr:

That was kind of devastating. It kind of came with the it was kind of devastating, definitely in a way. It was like, I can’t believe you laid me off. I mean, I’m smart, I’m intelligent. You know, it was telling me to pine national engineering honor society at school.

I’m one of the smart ones. You guys laid me off. What’s up with that. And yet I had, I’m married. That’s still M’s same way 30 years. But at the time it was kind of tough because I couldn’t fall back on her because I had to be her support system because she was stationed in Afghanistan at the time.

So I was all alone at home with, are they getting jobs at the time? So my fallback team was eight dogs. We had lots of long talks about things on that one, but it was yeah, it was a soul searching moment. It was really tough because I had to be strong for my wife who was back in Afghanistan, make certain they kept that first spirits.

And at the same time I said, all right, no, what are we going to do to make money? What’s the future look like? So it was a tough soul-searching moment. Definitely.

[00:44:52] Joel Erway:

How long did it take for you to like, after you made that commitment, that decision, like, okay, this is the path that I’m going to go down.

How long did it take for you to kind of get your first opportunity to present itself and ultimately your first, like your first victory, small or big victory? What, what did that look like? How long was that gap?

[00:45:12] Greg Mohr:

That probably was about a month, I would say is what it was. So at this time so it’s kind of funny.

So everybody’s getting laid off over it. I think it was Freescale somebody that at the time, but at the same time, another division needed some people, its employees. So I ended up, you know, the HR department got me an interview with one of the other departments. So while I was waiting for that interview to take place outside, I got to do the franchise thing as well.

So I started going online and I started just click happy out, Alex, that looks like a good one. So I went crazy with that and got lots of phone calls from all these franchise salespeople on that one. So it turned out that, you know, a couple weeks later I got the interview with it. But didn’t get the job.

I’ll have to say it was kind of funny. So as a down moment, you know, I got laid off. Why did you do that to me? How could you do that to me? I’m smart. You guys getting when she called me up and said, after I got the interview with it was with the quality department or something like that, they had other volunteer people that got laid off that had more experience.

She said, you’re doing great. These guys got more experience. So she said, you didn’t get it. So amazingly enough actually literally jumped for joy on that because it was like, okay, your crutch, all your crutches had just been kicked out from underneath you. No more crutches. You got to do that franchise.

And then. So I had gotten all these franchises late mind up that I was talking to. I went down to the local score, this score chapter to see already that a business people start talking to them about the different businesses that I could get into. And eventually I found two franchise consultants to work with and the two franchise consultants within probably about a month had outlined, you know, they said, okay, take a step back.

It’s not look at, you know, everything you’ve done so far. Just put that on hold. Let’s take a look. And did, did you just read it now? What are you looking to do? What are you looking to accomplish? What do you want your life to look like? So I got with them, so probably three months after I would, I had gotten laid off and probably about two months after the the second interview, I didn’t get that job.

I was in, I was in the school. You Mitchell a franchise system and went up to Canada to do some training and hours often.

[00:47:19] Joel Erway:

You know, it’s amazing. I always love hearing those stories of the pivots stories and, you know, there’s always a turning point or there’s always a a re-invention point. And sometimes it happens a lot of times.

It happens many, many, many times. And so I love hearing those stories because in our mind, when we’re going through them, there’s a lot of fear, but, you know, we don’t know how long it’s going to take. We don’t know what the, you know, what the response is going to be. But a lot of times it happens, like when you get through it on the other side, you realize it happens very, very fast or like you are resilient, right?

You, you know how to build the parachute on the way down, you know how to keep yourself afloat. And I love hearing all those stories. So a second question we have for you. So if you had to pick one, what mindset would you say has meant the most to you? And can you share an example of how that works?

[00:48:10] Greg Mohr:

Determination, desire, determination on that. That’s the biggest one on that? For that, what in almost anything. So I have to say I call it a desire. A lot of people call it determination or willpower stick to witness, but you’ve got to have that desire in your system do something different. So at one point in time but 10 years before I got laid off, I had weighed like 220 pounds.

And you know, when I, my heart blood pressure and her heart and everything went up one day at the at the office and they had to call the, the medics for me. And that was one of the things where I said, you know, you got to change your lifestyle on that one. I mean, you just, the way you’re going right now with eating what you’re doing and you know, not working out, you got, you got, you got to change the school.

A lot of people call it willpower, determination, whatever. I just call it the desire you desire to have something that’s different. So you do you want that more than you want other things in life? So love the chocolate. You know, I love the big fatty foods house and lived in Texas at the time while the.

But I gave up eating meat after an eating sweets, after 12 noon. And it wasn’t that difficult. And that’s the same thing in business to what you’re looking at there. And what I did with the business thing was after all my, my crutches been kicked off, mandate me. It’s like, you know, I could go back and start going to other companies and start applying for jobs.

There’s going to be the same thing all over again, the desire to have a different lifestyle and do something different to reach that goal that you want. It’s got to be greater than anything else that you’re doing until it is. You’re probably not gonna accomplish those goals. So my desire to live the way I want it to live, to do things I wanted to do one-on-one to do them, how my own schedule, flexibility be in charge of my destiny.

That desire was the strongest drive that I had in me. And I could just overlook some of these other things, you know, having that regular paycheck, you know, having that. I know exactly, you know, where my shirt, insurance companies are and all that. I guess that desire they’re really pointed me in that direction.

[00:50:18] Joel Erway:

Would you say that your desire is often linked to some sort of like painful incident? I mean, you know, when you were, had your health issue, your health crisis, right? You were on medications that triggered you to have a desired change. You know, when you got laid off that gave you the desire to not go back to a typical employer, but to go start out on your own path, would you say that your biggest desire moments have often been linked to like a negative event and that’s what triggered the desire?

Or do you have this innate ability to kind of create desire on demand for achieving anything that you want?

[00:51:03] Greg Mohr:

I can create desire on demand for achieving anything. On there, the big major things in life generally come from pain moments on that. And a lot of my people are the same way. It may not be just one pain moment, but it builds up over time.

That pain builds up over time. There’s usually an issue. There’s usually a problem for me. Yeah, if I want something I’m going to go after it and I’m going to create that desire on there. I think that it came to me back when I got laid off and then, or actually it came to be back when I was when I had those health issues and I never took any medications.

So they gave me some, some medications to take. And I said, I said, if I’m going to do it, it’s just going to be, it’s going to be natural. My, I am not, you know, they gave me some drugs, somebody down on the doctor and I’m like, you know, I had a misspent youth. I did some things probably shouldn’t have not going that route.

Not doing any kind of medications. I just got myself up some books on natural cures, natural. So I just cured myself that way. A lot of the things do happen because of a major things. A lot of major things happened because of negative events or just a buildup of too many negative events. And that’s why I see that a lot with my clients as well as some of the things that I did also on that.

But now I can, I can, now that I felt that I can bring that out again, when I want to get something done, when I want to get something accomplished, I can bring that desire out. You get, okay, this is what I got to do. I might have to give up a few things here to do it. But this is what I want. So I go after it.

[00:52:34] Joel Erway:

Yeah. I mean, that’s amazing know it’s I think you’re kind of underselling your ability there a little bit, bit like creating desire on demand and executing is. People will pay a lot of money for that. And, you know, being able to lose weight on demand naturally without any sort of assistance, you know, just saying, okay.

Nope. It’s time. It’s time to it’s time to make a change and being able to follow through on it. That’s that’s incredible. Awesome story. All right. So what is something that you or your company does that you are really good at? And do you have a story about that? You know, like what, what is one of your, your ultimate strengths, finding people, the right franchise, as cliche as that may sound?

[00:53:14] Greg Mohr:

That’s pretty funny. So all this is a wonderful lady from Germany, found me on LinkedIn and she just said she had one goal, one goal in life. That was it. She said, I visited San Diego a couple of times. I live in Germany. I visited San Diego a couple of times. Greg get me to San Diego and I’ll need to make money while there.

Okay. Let’s see what we can do. And sure enough. We did just that we sat down, we did the same thing I do with that with other folks. It’s like, you know, where have you been? What are you doing? What kind of lifestyle you one over there in San Diego? Well, what do you want to do? What you enjoy doing?

What’s your goal, obviously, goals get San Diego. It’s the ultimate goal. So yeah, we found a franchise for, we got to ride EG Risa attorney to get her our visa over there and moving before the year was up until about 11 months. But sure enough, we got her over into San Diego and she was just posting pictures, like crazy on Facebook.

Just having a great time over there in San Diego and running a very successful business at the same time where she thoroughly enjoyed doing. So some of the things we do best is really just sitting down with our people and really talking them through and, you know, painting that picture. They paint me a picture of, you know, what they’re looking to do.

And then I run with that and say, okay, so, you know, this is what you’re looking to do. This was a picture that. So the biggest challenge then comes from me is finding that that franchise, that meshes together with that picture so they can see themselves doing it. So that’s what we do is really paint the picture, right?

[00:54:50] Joel Erway:

Is that a common situation, Greg, where somebody comes through and says, I want to move here. And I think a franchise is my best is my best opportunity to do that. I mean, is that, is that a common occurrence?

[00:55:05] Greg Mohr:

Not common, but it happens in, she didn’t care where there’s franchise or not. She just said you, I saw your business consultant.

Just get me over there. Okay. I do. It just can’t be over there that from another country over there is a well done that a couple of times I took another one from Pakistan. I think it was on that and move them over into Washington Washington state of all places on there. I think they’re over in Pakistan or India.

Some somewhere run in that, in those countries. And they want to say. They wanted to go over there. So it does happen not real often, most of the time people want to stick with that with their local communities.

[00:55:42] Joel Erway:

Yeah. I never thought about it like, oh, you know, if anyone is you know adventurous, you know, this could be an opportunity for them to kind of get a permanent place of residence.

Anyway, I didn’t know if there was a common segment of the market, but a little sidebar there. All right. Greg, final question. All right. And then we’ll wrap up. So what is your, why, what gets you out of bed everyday to strive for excellence? And can you tell us a story of how that played out in, in real life?

[00:56:07] Greg Mohr:

So my, why is that I’ve always liked helping people with that. So one of the things that I’ve always done on there, I moved up quickly over top of wealth manager. I liked working with people. I like making them improving their skills and helping them out. I did that so well that they moved me around to many different taco bells throughout the Sacramento area, because I had built up built up the teams both at the same.

On that I did that with the lions restaurants. When I went into imagining lines restaurants, as well as an engineer, we had a new software system. I trained many engineers, probably dozens hundred engineers on new software systems. So I always really liked helping people on that and with the franchising that really comes in because I’ve now been able to take myself from that employee world employee mentality into self-employment, where I’m making probably five to 10 times a year, more as a sole provider and a single person French.

Well, two of us, my wife helps out as well on there, but just a small business as compared to what I was doing as an employee on there with a lot more time. So, you know, as an engineer, I was, you know, 10 hours. At least five days a week on that now, you know, I should just take off a following two. How would my particular franchise business, if I’m not talking with people, I’m not making money on that one.

So there’s many different franchise groups, not that way for you. So don’t think that you have to be there all the time doing that. But I really like helping people realize the dream that I, that I have created for myself. I realized my dream. I know other people can do it as well. I like helping people see that you realize that there is something different out there.

If you situation that you’re in, isn’t what you had in mind for yourself. Really. Wasn’t what you pictured when you were growing up and getting that degree and getting that job. And you want to change that picture. And that’s where I come in. I’ve done it. I know it can be done and I can help you do it.

And that’s what I get up every morning thinking who’s the next person that’s going to come to me. So. I want to move to San Diego. I’m in Germany. I wanna move to San Diego, get me there. But there’s other stories like that as well. You know, I’ve got, I had a person over that was moved from the east coast or in Oklahoma or from the it department said, you’re not paying me enough over here.

I need to get painful. Find me a franchise that gets me paid more in the it department. So we put her into an honest one auto automotive service franchise for requirement to go figure she wanted to get a better job as 19. The it department put her under an honest one auto, because what we found out is that she really liked cars.

How would you think that gets her up in the morning, Juul like that? So there you go. We’ll find out what you like and we’ll get you into it and we’ll help you realize your dream.

[00:59:08] Joel Erway:

I love it, Greg, this has been such a fascinating conversation, your expertise and your journey has been inspiring and. You know, it kind of re scratch, but the itch that I always have had with, you know, getting interested in franchises and, and, and starting a franchise, or just learning about the franchise industry.

And so really appreciate your time, your true professional. You’re obviously very, very well-versed and it doesn’t cost anything to work with you. So if you were listening right now and you’ve ever considered the franchise world, if you’ve ever considered starting a franchise, but didn’t really know where to go, didn’t really know how to align what your goals are with what a franchise can do for you.

I highly highly recommend reaching out to Greg over at franchisemaven.com or shoot him an email at greg@franchisemaven.com. And let him know you heard him on experts on leash. Literally heard him on, on this podcast and give them a shell. And Greg, thanks so much, man. It has been And for everyone else listening in, we’ll see you on the next episode.

Take care.

[01:00:19] OUTRO:

Thanks for listening to this episode of experts unleashed. If you’re looking for new and innovative ways to design and execute your plan to become a six or seven figure expert without the massive team apply now at theperfectexpert.com.