Senior Vice President of Business Development: R. Andrew Cox of Medi Weight Loss joined me today on Eye on Franchising. Andrew has served as a Senior Vice President of Business Development in Tampa, Florida since our inception in January 2008. Medi-Weightloss® was developed by physicians, registered dietitians, and health professionals in the area of weight loss to help you control your calorie and carbohydrate intake while eating the optimum amount of protein to preserve muscle mass. The Medi-Weightloss® Program is evidence-based to result in a successful lifestyle change. When administering the treatment, Medi-Weightloss® healthcare providers take each patient’s unique health profile into account, which is what makes us The One that Works!® Amazing Support Physician Supervised Proven Success Tools for Success Signature Products Comprehensive Research These are a few pieces that separate Medi Weight Loss from any others and you can learn more from https://mediweightloss.com/ Listen in to the conversation with Andrew and I and you will be able to hear the incredible numbers that franchisees are doing throughout the company. This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising https://eyeonfranchising.com https://ionfranchising.com
Senior Vice President of Business Development: R. Andrew Cox of Medi Weight Loss joined me today on Eye on Franchising. Andrew has served as a Senior Vice President of Business Development in Tampa, Florida since our inception in January 2008.
Medi-Weightloss® was developed by physicians, registered dietitians, and health professionals in the area of weight loss to help you control your calorie and carbohydrate intake while eating the optimum amount of protein to preserve muscle mass. The Medi-Weightloss® Program is evidence-based to result in a successful lifestyle change. When administering the treatment, Medi-Weightloss® healthcare providers take each patient’s unique health profile into account, which is what makes us The One that Works!®
These are a few pieces that separate Medi Weight Loss from any others and you can learn more from https://mediweightloss.com/
Listen in to the conversation with Andrew and I and you will be able to hear the incredible numbers that franchisees are doing throughout the company.
This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future.
Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising
franchisees, weight loss, business, locations, patient, average, franchising, medical, people, running, franchise, physician, lance, clinic, ftd, marketing, pandemic, franchisor, franchise agreement, program
SPEAKERS
Lance, Andrew
Lance 00:00
Welcome to Eye On Franchising, where you will learn the A to Z's of franchise. Hello everyone and welcome back for another great episode of ion franchising. I am your host, Lance Graulich. Well, today, we have a great guest, we always have a great guest. But this one in particular, a friend of mine hailing from Tampa, Florida. So since January of 2007, well, sometime in 2007, possibly January, over 15 years ago, our next guest has guided the development and success of this awesome franchise brand. He's the senior vice president of development for Medi Weight Loss, we're going to talk about maybe weight loss. So his name is Andrew Cox. Welcome, Andrew. Lance, thanks very much for having me. Glad to be here. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. Let's start with the backstory. How did Andrew Cox get into the world of franchising, especially Medi Weight Loss?
Andrew 00:58
Sure, well, a long time ago, when I graduated from college, actually, my father in law and his partner had started a small franchise business that I ran for them down in Naples, Florida. So I guess he'd say that's the first entree into franchising, then I was always in the medical healthcare arena, back up in the northeast, in medical diagnostic companies with small small startup companies, and then large, multi, multi billion dollar companies that are global companies and was working in the Chicago area. And my father in law started with one of his partners, Ed Cluse, who's our CEO and founder and as the one that we can really thank for the success that many weight loss has had. And the reason we're still here, and doing very well. So we started Medi Weight Loss, and I brought in my father in law, his partner. And so my brother in law, and I, Brooks headland, we basically coordinate and share this side of the business. And then Ed's two sons, John and Derek, John runs the opposite finance and Jairus, our General Counsel. So it's a pure family business here and got into the business, Medi Weight Loss way back almost when we started. We've been in business now for going on 17 years. Thanks to Ed for starting it, thanks to Ed Jim, for all the elbow grease, as I like to say and all the money and time they put into it that first year, and setting everything up. And then the next generation came on board. So we started with, you know, four or five of us. And we've grown now to a company with well over 50 people here at our corporate headquarters. As I said in business, in almost 17 years, we've become the leading and largest physician supervised weight loss franchise in the country now with over 115 locations sold in 27 states. So very proud of the success that we've had in the last 16 plus years and, you know, continuing that,
Lance 02:45
love it. That sounds awesome. So let's back up on you getting into franchising in the first place. So when you kind of fell into it, it seems like so many people just fall into franchising. You didn't go to college for it. You didn't dream of it in high school, I'm guessing. But somehow you ended up in franchising, what was your first reaction to you know, what is this? How did I get get here? And how long am I staying?
Andrew 03:12
Great point, and most people probably don't know, I think franchising is a great mechanism. It's a great business and business is business, right, no matter what marketplace you're in. So I really enjoy that aspect. I think what I enjoyed most about franchising and way back when we first started had a small franchise that we had a couple locations and then sold after a short time, that was just a good experience a good business experience. I think then when we started Medi Weight Loss, you know, we all wear a lot of hats around here. And I think I enjoy that experience from my experiences with small startups and then being in the medical healthcare arena. And that certainly is what we are here at many weight loss. We're a medical retail business. So you're combining the medical aspect with franchising, but, you know, we wear a lot of hats, there's a lot of different things to do on a daily basis. You know, I think the one thing we've done very well here is we're smart enough to hire people a lot smarter than us and a lot better than us. So, you know, our team is tremendous. But, you know, I love the business aspect of it. I love growing your business, I love doing something different every day and wearing a lot of hats, you know, to build that business. And you know, we've got a motto here, and we work very hard and we play very hard, you know, so you work hard, play hard. And I think we have a lot of people that we call PLU's people like us. And so you know, love, love the business aspect of franchising the relationships that you build, and it's neat seeing people you know, go out and have their own business and really enjoy the life that that they'd like to lead and owning and running their own business.
Lance 04:39
Yep, absolutely. And, basically taking the system that was created so many years ago and that you guys have perfected and speaking of which, how did that system come about? Where did the idea for a medically supervised weight loss company come from? We all know I think everybody listening certainly knows that. The weight loss US business is an amazing business. I mean, last I checked, I think it was like $150 billion a year business or something like that?
Andrew 05:09
Absolutely. I don't think there's probably a bigger or a better business opportunity to be and then wait, it's $147 billion market, it's 175 million targets here in the US. So here in the United States, just from a market perspective, the United States leads the world in obesity and weight, again, nothing to be proud of, but was seven and a half out of every 10 People walking down the street and a meeting at a party, you're overweight or obese. So it's really staggering. Obviously, there's a lot of yo-yo diets, food pyramids, meal replacement type of weight loss programs out there, and we all know about them. But when you look at the medically supervised marketplace, I think a couple of keys to that, is that first of all, when you're losing weight, it should be medically supervised. And I'll talk about our program and really what sets us apart coming up. But yeah, we're very medically and clinically component to our programs are very safe, sound and effective. We have a physician, for every one of our locations, an NP or a PA is the provider at each location. So the medical director does not need to be working in the actual clinic, but we've got an NP or PA at every location. So there's a provider memory location, and we accept all private pay insurances as well. So that's another big advantage with Medi Weight Loss. So not all of our our owners are physicians, as a matter of fact, over the last decade, we've grown mostly with non physicians like you and I lanced you know good, good business, people who want to get into business to help people, you know, it's pretty neat being in a business where you're helping people change their lives, literally. And then they you know, the higher the medical component, we do all the training, and then the system we have, which is what you asked about, you know, when you look at Medi Weight Loss, and I'll be biased, because I'm not one of them, it's our team. But I don't think you'll find any franchise out there that gives the type of franchise support that we do in our total turnkey business, as I like to say, you know, and that's really the key. I think in franchising, you look at it, you want to run, you want somebody who really wants to run and work for themselves and be their own little president and CEO, right. At the same point in time, though, you want to follow that system. But that's what franchising is all about, you've already put the game plan or the roadmap in place. So why play outside the sandbox, as I like to say, if you're gonna get in it, you know, that's what you're paying money for, and paying good fees for play inside the sandbox, because it's a proven model, it's a proven success. So when you look at Medi Weight Loss, you know, from our total turnkey model, we have to be that much more professional, thorough, and complete the most. And that's not to put any other franchisor down. But again, we're combining medical, which is very regulated with franchising, which is very regulated in a lot of legalities as well. So we do that very, very well. We have an incredibly talented team here. With a lot of support, we've got a full time Medical Director on board, we have a PhD from Yale, who runs all of our r&d and compliance. So you look at the franchise support and the marketing and the IT and the legal and the training, and everything that we do and holding our franchisees hands do to help be successful. So the system that we have in place, I think, is is honestly unparalleled, you know, from a franchise support perspective, and then when you look at the actual system itself, which is called our advantage system, we've built that system from the ground up, which runs the entire business, it's basically like their virtual office, you know, whether they're, as I like to say, where they're on the beach, the boat is slopes, or they can be looking in and logging in to see their business and, and how they do and it's a system that helps us help them. We've actually spent over $12 million just on our system alone to evolve that over the 17 plus years that we've been in business now.
Lance 08:37
Wow, that's impressive. So what it seems to be a little unique or a lot unique about Medi Weight Loss, there's a lot of things obviously but you have quite a few corporate locations, don't you?
Andrew 08:47
We do and that's you know, that's not our main business but we do very well with those as well. Our main business is the franchisee you know, selling franchises and supporting our franchise
Lance
no, but I love it from my perspective being a franchisee before various brands, I like when the franchisor actually operates some locations.
Andrew
Good. And we do too, because that's where we do a lot of the testing and will evolve our program. And at the end of the day, we know exactly what we're doing and how the franchisees are doing because we're doing the same thing. And honestly, Lance, I think what's unique about us is we run our corporate own locations exactly the same way the franchisee does with a pay the exact same fees, they buy the same products, they have the same cost. It's exactly the way our franchisees do. I mean, obviously we're paying ourselves in those locations, but at the same point in time, you were able to trial new products and services. You know, we that's how we piloted insurance and got insurance up and running. So there's a lot of advantages there. So yeah, we're out in the field running locations right along with our franchisees as well.
Lance
That's great. Now, when you mentioned, let's talk a little bit about staffing. You mentioned the medical director obviously does not have to be in the facility. And then you mentioned PA’s which are physician's assistants, I remember And what's NP? I think it was correct. Yep.
Andrew
So a PA is a physician assistant and an NP is a nurse practitioner or a nurse practitioner. The staffing in our model is pretty simplistic. And it's actually one of the neat things about our business I call our business Lance real quality of life type of an opportunity. And what do I mean by that are average business and we'll talk about numbers coming up does over nine or $1,000 a year. And when you look at that, it's only in about 1500 to 2000 square feet. And with about four full time, personnel, that's it. So you don't need 30 or 40 people which can be 30, or 40, headaches, you know, running a business, and they're all professional, qualified people. So in our business who's ever really running the location, not being either the owner operator or the office manager is really the key. So who's ever running that business and about half of our franchisees are semi absentee, meaning they've got an owner operator, and the other half are owner operators, they're running the business. So that's the key who's ever running the business day in and day out, then you'll have a medical director, that medical director is really just a figurehead position, he or she, that physician does not need to be working in the clinic, they can be out doing whatever subspecialty they are running their clinic. And that's a very small monetary compensation position. And then the provider of the clinic is either what you just asked before either the NP or the PA, the nurse practitioner, or the physician assistant is the provider of the clinic. And then you'll hire another MA and medical assistant. And then you'll hire another counselor or provider as you start to grow. But the beautiful thing about Medi Weight Loss is really only about four full time personnel working in a medi weight loss location, it's flexible hours, or average locations only open about 35 hours a week, producing that type of revenue. So it's flexible hours, it's a fun, neat business, because you're helping people change their lives, we have very little turnover. So you have to remember in the medical arena, you know, patients are sick or they're hurt, they have to go see the physician or the nurse practitioner or the PA, they're miserable, right. And in our business, they're electing to come to us, they're losing a lot of weight, they're changing their lives, the staff becomes like life coaches to these patients.
Lance 12:08
So I'm curious about the actual customers and how it actually works. I know you guys have great numbers, which we're going to talk about when somebody loses a whole bunch of weight to they never come back to you and refer to their friends and family. I mean, as you mentioned, 70% of America is essentially overweight in some form or fashion. So I mean, how does that work with your customer base?
Andrew
Sure. And so there are patients, so our patients that many weight loss, on average will come 12 to 14 weeks in a row. And that's also from a business perspective, what a great residual business, because to create a 900 plus $1,000 Your business with us, it only takes about 450 new patients. Why? Because again, they're coming back another 12 1314 plus times. So that creates over 6000 officers, it's for the year. So what a tremendous residual business we are, which is really, I think one of the keys to our business,
Lance
Everybody wants residual income.
Andrew
Exactly. I mean, it's just week after week after week, and so 75% of your revenue has been derived from those actual patient visits. So the patient comes in on that first initial visit. It's a full medical clinical workup, it's about an hour long visit. And our average patient will lose five to seven pounds the first week. So it works and works well. And then they'll come back each week, week after week after week. And they'll lose a pound or two each week. And we can talk about the program and what sets us apart. But then, as the patient loses the weight, Medi Weight Loss is the only one that has a wellness component so they can come back monthly. Once they've reached that goal. We were the only ones that had an interactive exercise program. So we've tied them to the interactive exercise program. And the big thing is in our advantage system, each patient has their own portal where they can log on and see the exercises and the recipes and their vitals, so we tie them with different touch points to Medi Weight Loss. And then in addition to that, about 25% of your revenue, I'm a franchisee's revenue is from our actual products and supplements, which are all manufactured, and exclusively for many weight loss all privately labeled for us. And they can buy those online. So we continue to have touch points to that patient and your patient. If it's a patient in your clinic, you're getting full credit for those product sales. So we have a lot of touch points to keep in touch with that patient to keep the success and when you look at many weight loss. Our average patients tried 3.2 other programs in the past as I talked about those yo-yo diets, food pyramids, meal replacements, whatever you want to call them, you know they don't work, they come to Medi Weight Loss and it works hence our tagline Lance the one that works.
Lance
The one that works I love it. Well, let's talk, let's talk numbers. First of all, what does it cost? What is the investment to get a typical medi weight loss go and you mentioned 1500 square feet or so. I know it's going to depend on construction and build out and whether you find a vanilla shell or an existing sort of office you take over but Talk about the location and the overall investment.
Andrew
Sure, well, first of all, when you look at location, maybe weight loss does it a lot differently than most franchisors, which I think our franchisees really like. We give large protected territories, we look at population density and average household income. And we go beyond that and look at what what we call our average, core patient target households. So we'll build a territory, our average church was about a four or five mile radius, but it could be 3.5 miles, 6.5 miles, five miles. So there are large protected territories that no other clinic goes into. And then secondly, as far as the locations, we've got a national real estate firm, that once they have the sign in a funded location, they're helping them looking for that taking them through the entire process to assign and negotiate an LOI to assign a negotiated lease. And then as far as locations, our average renovation is probably about a $50,000 renovation, we can work with whether the locations are a rectangle, or a square or a circle, wherever the each vac is, the plumbing is, on average, we're looking at about a $50,000 renovation. As far as the numbers and as per FTD, our average total investment, I believe it's 268, to 415. But on average for that nonphysician, you're gonna come in, and we're very conservative here. So as I say, all day long, you'll spend about $350,000, or will want you to have that available to make the business successful. I think that's the one thing that we've done very well here. And certainly the credit end to this is that we're funded very well. And at the end of the day, we spend a dime to make $1, we don't spend a penny to make 50 cents, where they're going to do it or do it or not do it, do it well, or don't do it. Any business is only as good as its capitalized. So I think that's very important. But here, it's 152,000 at the time of signing and funding the franchise agreement, it's a 75,000 franchise fee, and a 77,000 initial package fee. That initial package Lance is really everything they need to open up the clinic other than the furniture, telephone computer. So that's all the medical equipment, capital equipment, ancillary supplies, products, supplements, we create, develop, launch and pay for their initial marketing 12,000 alone, it includes a week long system standards training here than our opening team goes out to their location for their grand opening week to do additional training and be there to get them off to a good start. And then they'll have a dedicated franchise field consultant for many weight loss as well assigned to their clinic. So 152,000 At the time they sign in front of franchise agreement, of which 77,000 is coming back to them and kind and then they'll need another couple $100,000 in working capital conservatively. And that couple 100,000 of working capital includes you know, the $50,000 on average of renovation or build out. So you're looking at about a $350,000 investment all in on a concert on a conservative basis.
Lance
Yeah, so are some of your folks getting SBA loans?
Andrew
They do, you know, most of our clientele, we do have a little bit higher qualification, to be honest with you when we're looking at we are qualifications for a semi absentee owners, they have to have 450,000 of liquid assets. For an owner operator, we significantly reduced that it's only 150,000 of liquid assets. Not that they need to use that they can fund it once they qualify with us. They can fund it however they like. We have some that do SBA loans, we have some that just pay out of their own assets, we'll have some that do traditional financing, or loans, etc.
Lance
Got it? Perfect. So let's talk about the bread and butter, if you will, you know, for those of you playing along at home, let's see an FTD the Franchise Disclosure Document has 23 items. Item number 19 Is the earnings claim. And the earnings claim is what a lot of my candidates as a franchise broker go right to to understand well, what is an average? What are the average sales or whatever it is that the brand might disclose? So Andrew, what's in your item 19?
Andrew
Sure, and Lance obviously, for most the dark familiar with FTD is the Franchise Disclosure Document, as you explained every franchisor has them and they're about two or three inches thick. So I guess that's why we have attorneys in the world. But the item and it is very important. Obviously item 19 is where any franchisor can make their financial representations. Because we can't come right out and say here's your net or your performers your margins. But as we walk you through item 19 we can back right into that bread and butter as you'd like to say. And our item 19 is very robust, very proud of it. First of all, we have a lot of locations reporting. In our FTD we have I believe over 50 locations reporting financials, which is a huge data sample point, you know, for that franchisee, where most just show their top locations or two. So we're very transparent showing top to bottom bottom to top and I'll walk them through that thoroughly completely. But just to get right to the chase our average location does over $919,000 a year. Our item 19 As I said it's very robust. They can see all operating costs in there etc and really back into the net number. So we'll list that minus our fees. Our fees are based upon a flat monthly rotating fee and it's right there in a chart. So it's very simple. You take the 919 you minus out the franchise fee You can get to that net very simply. So our average location in the system does over $919,000 of revenue, putting over $150,000 of net profit to the bottom line from one location, our top third locations do over one and a half million dollars of revenue. And they'll do over 350,000 of net profit right to the bottom line. So as you can appreciate a franchising and when the average franchise in America, I believe does about $80,000 of net profit, which is great, our average single locations doing more than double that our average top three locations doing four times that, Andrew, it's great the way you laid that out, I was talking to a gentleman this morning from another brand who was talking to a candidate of mine. And he was asking one of my favorite questions of that candidate, which is, well, here are the numbers for our brand, are you going to be average, above average or below average?
Lance
So to your exact point, Andrew, the way you laid it out, is people get to see and determine, you know, if you're going to be average, you know, that's still a heck of a lot of net profit, like you said, basically double what a typical franchise is. But if you're one of those that's going to be in the upper echelon, man 350 nets pretty nice
Andrew
you know that Lance, you must have, you must have listened to me before and I That's exactly how I explained it, you know, Medi Weight Loss. It's a 10 year contract, and with four or five year renewals, but if you look at 10 years, and of course, we can't talk about nets and performance when they're breaking even. But as you can lay out your performance and go through our FTD our average locations making money usually in that third quarter. So any business that you're making money, not only breaking even, but starting to make money in the first year is phenomenal. So just be conservative and say you break even in that first year, it's exactly what I say, you know, if you look, if you're just the average location, just the average location, and that's about a 1.4 $1.5 million net return on a $350,000 investment. I'd love my Merrill Lynch account to be doing those types of returns right? And let alone if you're on top there. And that's exactly how I say it. So looking at minimizing your risk with Medi Weight loss is looking at an average location where you're not coming to do anything to be average, you know, you're coming in to be better or the best, right? And so then look at the app. And that's just the average of our top third locations, by the way.
Lance 22:22
Yeah, no, I love it and look with talks of recessed recession, the big R word out there. Whether it happens or not, I'm just going to assume you're in a good place because I know plenty of people, friends, family that have, you know, been overweight, are overweight, looking for the next program, so to speak. Like you said, what the average person it's 3.2 programs or whatever they've joined to lose weight and Medi Weight loss could be their last stop on that program. But I gotta man, imagine you're pretty recession proof. Be grateful. Health has to come first.
Andrew
Yes, absolutely. That's a great point. Lance, as I like to say not only recession proof, but pandemic proof as well, you know, in today's world, and you know, back in the economic downturn of Oh, eight, no nine, we actually sailed right through that, to be real frank about it. And we've done the same thing. Now, during the pandemic, and even today, you know, we're a medical essential business. So we're able to stay open during that pandemic. And the bottom line is people are going to spend for their health, you know, and their well being. And you certainly saw that back in a way to no nine. And that's back when we were a cash business, the entire first decade of Medi Weight loss, we were a cash business. So we're going on eight or nine years now of accepting insurance, and about six or seven years of being up and running full bore. So we accept all private pay insurances, and you know, when you look at that, that's a huge advantage for many weight loss. So, you know, in an economic downturn, people are still going to come in on insurance, you'd be surprised by the amount of people that still pay cash as well. And then when you look, in today's world, from a pandemic perspective, you know, we did very, I don't wanna say very well, when the pandemic first hit, that first three months, we took a big a big hit, and then everybody was frozen in time as the way I tell it, exactly what is going on what is a lockdown? Exactly, but we did manage ourselves very well through that, thanks to our management team, how we did that and what we did with our franchisees created a new fee structure introducing telemedicine, so did a great job of managing through that. And Lance, honestly, the second half of that year was very, very strong, and we had a great end to 2020. And then 2000 2001 was our best year ever. You know, we just killed it because when you look at the pandemic, obviously, the number two cause of all hospitalizations and death is obesity. And so, it's a great time to be in our business, health and wellness is first and foremost on people's minds, you know, to get healthy and to get healthy and happy. And the first part of that is the weight. You know, the average American carries around 25 to 30 pounds extra. I mean put a 25 pound dumbbell in a backpack and carry that on out all day. Yeah, now that's awful. You know, you made mention earlier, we might, as we'll talk about an hour talking about the program more, more specifically and, and how it works or you don't have to share all the secret sauce, but whatever people need to hear, because you get you have potential customers not only franchisees listening, great, and that really is what sets us apart. And, and thank you first and foremost, it's the medical clinical component. And it's our diet program that makes us so successful. That's, I think the three big differentiators with many weight loss from a business perspective, or even with their patients listening is first and foremost, our medical clinical protocol and the results we deliver. Second would be the support and a total turnkey that we deliver, which I talked a little about before. And then third is our system, which I've also talked about. So just to hit on all three of those, but did on the first one more so because that's most important is that we're not not another yo-yo diet or a food pyramid or meal replacement. Were a medical clinical protocol based upon a real food diet. And that's the key Lance is that we're teaching patients or patients on a real food or grocery store diet, what to eat, how to eat and portion control. So we're really changing a lifestyle behavioral change. And so at the end of the day, when you look at any of those other programs, you know, the patient goes in and eats the same frozen food or meal replacement, they lose 50 pounds, what happens as soon as they stop eating, they gain 6070 or 80 right back. So Medi Weight loss. Again, it's about changing that lifestyle behavior. And so at the end of the day, when they come into that first initial visit, we do a full medical workup on the patient, we do an EKG, we do a blood draw a full lipid panels run, we do a blood pressure we do a workup on a 22 body mass scale, so we'll have all their their vitals and then each each patient's individual, I might have to lose 100 pounds on the on the program for a year, you might have to lose 20 pounds in the program for six weeks. So every patient's individual, but the key with our program is we treat every patient individually, it's a medical clinical protocol, there is an appetite suppressant, a prescription medication and an injection of B six B 12. A vitamin injection are part of a resource or tool part of the program. And of course, we're medically supervised every location as a medical directory physician as the medical director, and every location as a provider and NP or PA seeing the patient. So we're a very safe sound that effectively never had one not not one assure or claim. But the key is changing that patient's lifestyle. behavioral change is it's like a keto diet. So that first week they're eating all proteins, no carbs. But the bottom line is we outline that exact Real Food Program for that week, all the options, all that they can eat and what to do, and the average patient loses five to seven pounds the first week. And then the key is the accountability or structure of our program. The patient comes back week after week after week. And on every follow up visit again we do blood pressure we do a full workup on the to body mass scale look into progression and history and their vitals and how they've done. And now we add on more clerks and take more food groups each week as we go again on a real food diet and outline for them exactly all their options, and what they can eat. So as you can see, we're starting to change that lifestyle plan of theirs if you will. And the average patient will lose a pound or two a week. So our average patients lose 15 to 20 pounds the first month. So we're creating that lifestyle behavioral change, we're helping them maintain that through the fact of our wellness program, they come back monthly once they reach a goal weight, we have an interactive exercise program, which is tailored to where they are in the journey. And each patient has their own portal in our advantage system. So when you look at that aspect of it, we're helping that patient lose the weight, keep the weight off, and that's the key. Many weight loss is comprehensive. Basically, we're a wellness solution, because we focus on our core competency of losing the weight and keeping the weight off. And that's the key. And then when you combine that from the business aspect of as I mentioned before, all the support we give I mean literally from our for our franchisee once they've assigned and funded franchise agreement, we're holding their hand if it's a 10 step process to be successful, many weight loss very simply, we hold their hand do with them. And for them nine out of 10 steps and give it to them on a silver platter, the 10 step is them and hiring their staff which we assist them with as well. And then we train them if that staff puts in place the patient experience that we offer, they're going to lose weight, it's going to work, they're going to be successful. And then you combine that with with our system itself as I mentioned the advantage system which we spent over $12 million on and runs the entire business you know it's a virtual office it's a virtual office for them and their staff who use that day in and day out is doing all the check in and the checkout and insurance and doing all their sales and inventory reports and ordering products or supplements. So when you combine a system as robust as ours, you combine the support and every franchisee, getting their own franchise feel consultant and all the support we give in a total turnkey business and you combine that with a medical clinical protocol and the results that we deliver. I know that's a really long answer. But those are the three key differentiators that set any weight loss apart, starting with our program itself and delivering the results. So what do you guys do for the marketing side of things? As I know, it's fairly easy to market the heck out of weight loss because it's such a huge market. And virtually, if 70% of people out there are interested in losing weight, I mean, you know, interested and committed to different things. But tell me about your marketing, what kind of advantages do the franchisees have, you know, being a franchisee of yours. Sure, you know, that is one of our strengths, we have a lot of strengths here, but our micro our marketing departments are phenomenal, we do everything in house, we've won a lot of marketing awards and graphic design awards against some big companies. But at the end of the day, you know, first and foremost, we're going to look at that, that marketing analysis, we're going to create, develop, launch and pay for their initial marketing drive patients through the door. Each one of our locations has their own website, which recruit, develop and maintain for them linked into our master website. We're very savvy here from doing a lot of website optimization, and pay per click campaigns and SEO. So we drive a lot of traffic, through E commerce, we actually drive out over 1000 leads a month to all of our clinics, right from our own website. And then when you look at the other things you do, you don't need to start off with the real expensive things of TV or radio, our average location spent about five $6,000 a month in marketing, which is a very healthy campaign. And then we do a lot of direct mail campaigns through our extensive demographic software system, we're able to look at those territories. And look at where the core patient target households are and do a lot of direct mail campaigns into those areas. As I said, drive a lot of things e commerce, as you start to build up an area or get multiple locations in the area and start to cluster. We're very successful on TV as well and do a lot with that. We do have a national marketing campaign as well, which contributes but we really spend all that money as opposed to nationally into the markets of our actual clinics. So another advantage for them as we're driving traffic into those, those markets where we have clinics.
Lance
Great. So who is your ideal franchisee I would imagine if you look at you know, with 115 or so currently open, if you look at your top 10% of franchisees, your, your top 12 franchisees? What do they do prior to coming on Medi Weight loss? And what skills do they have that make them?
Andrew
Great question, Lance. I get asked that all the time. And honestly, I don't think there's a secret sauce or pigeonholes ourselves to say it's got to be this type of person from this type of industry. You know, first and foremost, we have physicians and we started marketing to physicians back in the beginning of our days because every location had that physician, but what I think lends the validity more than any weight loss is over the last decade, we've grown with a lot more non physicians, you know, we're probably 60 70% Now non physicians because they run a great business, you know, they're good business operators, they're good operators, markers and how to run a business. But at the end of the day, you know what really sets the top apart is who's ever in charge of that business if it's the owner operator, that office manager No, that's the key. I don't want to sound BIAs are brash when I say this, but if they follow the Medi weight loss plan, they're going to be successful are people here our team, not me, but our team is tremendous here and holding our franchisees hands and putting that roadmap for that game plan. But we have franchisees from all different walks of life, you know, I think you'll see a lot of them that have been in the C suite or mid management they want to stop working in corporate and they want to have a life and they want to work for themselves and start building you know, building their own wealth as opposed to building someone else's wealth. But they're really from all different walks of life. You know, we had some people with medical healthcare experience but others you know, come from insurance or they come from technology or they come from the financial world and you know, when you look at our business, it's a business to helping people and so, you know, just look for people that have good people skills, because we're a medical retail business, if they have good people skills and good business, we can teach them the entire business side of our business from the medical to the business side. Love it. Tell us a little bit about the process. So somebody that how do they come through me let's say as a broker they come through other sources they see your website describe the process, you know, how long does it typically take on average to become a franchisee? Sure, well as you certainly know being a broker we'd love love working with you and and your firm and you guys qualified them basically give them the appetizer version if you will, and then they come to many weight loss and so our processes and literally drops and myself handled every candidate comes through through our company we put all our assets into supporting our franchisee once they're up and running, which I think is very important. And so at the end of the day, it is a very thorough and complete process. I think with us we take them through a full executive overview presentation via webinar for about an hour and a half to give them a very complete and thorough overview of the Medi weight loss opportunity. Then they'll go through the MIDI application and the NDA and they'll get our entire full information packet and the FTD and then we have our three Riki leadership calls which are pretty unique to many weight loss, which are our operations, marketing and medical affairs call. So they'll spend about an hour and a half with each of our key areas. Those are three key areas of the business which are kind of like a 10,000 foot deep dive in about many weight loss. They'll have weekly calls with us, we'll do franchisee validation calls for him so they can talk to other franchisees, not just us, and then ultimately a discovery day. And as you're certainly aware, with our discovery day, I think our discovery days are very non pressure, if you will, they have to come to Tampa or you do they come to Tampa, we can do a virtual but we you know, we love having people here, we want to meet them, and hopefully they will they want to meet us but you know, and that process, you know, it's not something they're going to do overnight. And we don't want them to, you know, we want them to know everything about our operations and make sure it's a good fit. As I like to say, you know, peels, peel us people like us. And so we've had them as quick as literally four weeks from the time they started to they're signed, and others are, you know, eight to 12 weeks, I'd say on average, you're looking probably about six to eight weeks from the time you start the process. Do you have a sign in funded franchise agreement? And then you have the opening process and the location and opening etc. Sounds great. Do you have any multi unit franchisees? We do have many multi franchise unit owners about 30 to 35%. Actually, that's awesome. Love the units. I love it. I love it. So give me a couple of your hot areas where you would love to have a franchisee and you don't. You know, honestly, we have opportunities all across the country. Wait if there's no targeted areas, wait is north south, east and west. We're headquartered here in Tampa, Florida. So we're primarily all up and down the East Coast, we have some limited availability in a couple areas. But honestly, there's nowhere that sold out. When they go on our website, they can see where our locations are, you know, cluster marketing is very effective when you go into locations that have other locations there. We also do very well Lance when we go into a brand new market because there's no nobody like us, we're able to really get in there and capture a market opportunity. So we're into the southeast and the Southwest love to grow more, you know, in the Midwest and and out towards the west. But honestly, we've got opportunities north, south, east or west. So you bring the candidates we look forward to working with
Lance
Andrew, this has been a great final word for the day.
Andrew
You know, the final word for the day is you know, I think health equals happiness. It's pretty neat being in a business where you're making a very solid ROI and at the same point in time really helping people change their lives.
Lance
Awesome. Andrew, you've been fabulous, Andrew Cox Medi Weight loss. Thank you for being here.
Andrew
Thanks, Lance.
Lance
Thank you very much for listening today. Please follow and subscribe. This is Lance Graulich. Until next time