02. Do You Need Multiple Locations to Franchise?

Chad Palmer: 00:09
Welcome to FranCast, brought to you by United Franchise Group. I’m Chad Palmer, and today we’re going to talk about all things franchising, what it is, how it works, and how to think about it the right way with real talk about franchising. Joining me today is Mike Landis, Regional Vice President in Accurate Franchising. Thanks so much for being here today. Thank you, Chad. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. Hey, so before before we jump in, I’d just like you to share a little bit about your story. Just tell us about how you got into franchising and what keeps you excited about it.

Mike Landis: 00:37
Absolutely. So I started with the organization approximately five and a half years ago. So, you know, approaching that six-year mark. But I have never been at franchising before this.

Chad Palmer: 00:49
Yeah.

Mike Landis: 00:50
But started with selling some of the brands that we own and operate directly as a franchisor. And then I was quickly drawn over to the consulting division, which is Accurate Franchising. So I’ve been doing that now for five years.

Chad Palmer: 01:07
Excellent. So for those listeners that are just brand new to franchising, how would you explain the kind of the concept of franchising just in plain English?

Mike Landis: 01:14
So with franchising, it’s really taking a corporately owned business and creating a separate entity, which is going to be the franchise entity. And that’s where it allows for other individuals to purchase a location and run that location with consistency and uniformity. And meanwhile, the corporately owned business owner is going to be profiting off of that.

Chad Palmer: 01:44
Hopefully, right?

Mike Landis: 01:45
Correct. Correct.

Chad Palmer: 01:46
So what are the biggest myths that people have about franchising when they first come to you?

Mike Landis: 01:51
I think the biggest misconception is that you need to have multiple locations doing a certain amount of revenue or even being, you know, just open a certain amount of years. Where in reality, if you have one flagship location at minimum that’s doing good and it could be duplicated or replicated, you’re in that sweet spot.

Chad Palmer: 02:16
So do do you recommend that that they kind of if they have one location that’s working great for them to kind of launch that second and third location before coming to you? Or you think, hey, as long as you have a great concept that we can brand and we can market and we can sell, that they’re okay to go.

Mike Landis: 02:33
I I see it both ways. You know, I would say if you have one location and it’s doing exceptional, you’re starting to get a nice following in your neighborhood, you get a lot of social media likes or you know, followers, and you’re getting that question, hey Chad, you know, I like the business. How do I become a part of it? That’s a good indication that you have something, even if it’s just one location that you could duplicate through franchising. So one to two, that’s the sweet spot I look for.

Chad Palmer: 03:04
Yep. So so basically then when the customers are basically telling that owner, hey, we want more of you, like we want we want some more locations, you know, scattered around a little bit, that’s a good indicator. That is fantastic, yes. So so at a high level, what makes someone a good candidate for franchising, like regardless of the brand?

Mike Landis: 03:21
I would look for, again, one flagship location. I would look for something that could be duplicated or replicated in multiple geographic markets. I would also look for something that’s scalable, has their systems, processes, procedures in place. And if they have that, that’s what we look for. And the last item is a differentiator. If you have that secret sauce or something that just makes you a little unique and different, that is exactly what you want to see.

Chad Palmer: 03:51
That’s great. So so let’s let’s flip the script now from your perspective. Like, what mistakes do people make? They say, Hey, I want to I want a franchise like right now. Uh let’s go. Mike, help me out. What do you what mistakes do you see then?

Mike Landis: 04:02
We’re very step-by-step driven. So I like to take it, you know, one step at a time, crawl, walk, run, and let us go through the feasibility with you. Let us take a look at it. And if it’s a conversation where we have uh with the prospect, or you know, if you were the prospect here, yeah, if we look at the feasibility and we saw it’s a brand new concept just open, franchising might not be the greatest path for them.

Chad Palmer: 04:29
But if they have move yourself first a little bit.

Mike Landis: 04:32
Yeah, you know, because we’re gonna give them our feedback and it’s gonna be honest feedback, and we’re gonna look at it through the lens of our own and really ask ourselves is this something that could be scaled through franchising right now, or should they wait six months, a year, whatever the case may be?

Chad Palmer: 04:49
Okay, so let’s say I’m I’m a potential prospect for you. I’ve got two, three locations. Uh I’m just not sure about my next move. What’s a what’s a smart move for me to make to get more information about franchising?

Mike Landis: 05:01
I would say if you’re in that scenario and you have everything I just listed off as far as what we look for, at least explore it. You know, have the conversation. It’s a free conversation have with us. It’s not something you have to pay for. We just want to enlighten the prospect on hey, this is how franchising works and see if it’s a good fit for you.

Chad Palmer: 05:24
Yeah. Make sure it’s a good fit, not just an idea that just because I think I I would be good at it doesn’t mean that I would. Exactly. So, so on a lighter note, tell me about uh a franchisey success or franchise success story um that kind of sticks with you.

Mike Landis: 05:40
Uh so one that’s near and dear to my heart is uh one that I actually found myself. Uh so it was in you know local South Florida here where we’re located. Uh, our friends told us about it. And this dates back uh around three years ago. Uh but it was to show my daughter a really fun time before we told her, hey, you’re not gonna be an only child anymore. Right. So it was big news was coming. Yeah, yeah. You know, she didn’t know yet, but uh we wanted to give her a real fun day. So we went to this indoor playground. I don’t know if you’ve heard of these, but they’re awesome.

Chad Palmer: 06:16
Yep.

Mike Landis: 06:16
Uh so I went in, I saw the business, it was packed. And for me, on the franchising side, I know this is something that could be duplicated. So I asked the lady at the counter, I said, is this a franchise? And she said, no. Uh, but if you call the number on the website, that goes directly to the owners. Uh so me being in the franchise industry and seeing what I saw, I knew they had everything needed to duplicate that and become a franchise. Uh so I called the number and they answered right away. And then they’re here the very next week. And now they’re up to about 10 locations. So that one is definitely my favorite. It’s amazing. Love that story. Thanks so much for sharing it. Absolutely.

Chad Palmer: 07:04
So, this has been a great conversation. Just want to appreciate and appreciate you and say thank you for your time. Um, for those of you that are listening, if we’ve sparked any questions or got you thinking differently about franchising, that’s the goal of this podcast, really, is to help you kind of understand franchising at a deeper level. So we’ll be back again with another conversation breaking down all things franchising. Thanks for listening. And Mike, thanks again for joining us today. Appreciate it.

Mike Landis: 07:26
Thank you, Chad. Thanks.