It’s disheartening to see how many aspiring entrepreneurs give up on their dreams because of fear. Fear of the unknown is normal. That’s part of our survival instincts. However, what we should normalize is following our dreams! Step one to realizing our goals and dreams is subduing the instinct to simply look from the outside, and consciously choosing to find your way through doors of opportunities. What’s behind the door? How about we let Chris Rahill talk about his experience as a franchisee. Chris is a proud franchisee of Mighty Dog Roofing, a business franchise that specializes in roofing, siding, gutters and other exterior projects and remodels. Chris has already owned another home service business prior Mighty Dog, and has worked at Benetrends Financial as a Funding Sales Consultant, where he learned about the franchise industry and where he started to pursue his dream of becoming a business owner. Through his experiences, Chris learned that owning a business can be tough but the resources made available to you as a franchisee definitely eases you into success. He also learned that as a franchisee, the success of your business is still largely on you. This realization may seem daunting until you recognize that there are many paths to success that you can take. You just need to find the one that fits your style and where you can have the most fun. How do you begin to choose the brand that’s right for you? What’s the day-to-day of a franchisee like? What obstacles can you expect and how do you overcome them? Tune in to our Podcast to learn more about everything you WANT and NEED on franchising, investment, financing processes and options. This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. https://www.facebook.com/lance.graulich https://ionfranchising.com/
It’s disheartening to see how many aspiring entrepreneurs give up on their dreams because of fear.
Fear of the unknown is normal. That’s part of our survival instincts. However, what we should normalize is following our dreams!
Step one to realizing our goals and dreams is subduing the instinct to simply look from the outside, and consciously choosing to find your way through doors of opportunities.
What’s behind the door? How about we let Chris Rahill talk about his experience as a franchisee.
Chris is a proud franchisee of Mighty Dog Roofing, a business franchise that specializes in roofing, siding, gutters and other exterior projects and remodels. Chris has already owned another home service business prior Mighty Dog, and has worked at Benetrends Financial as a Funding Sales Consultant, where he learned about the franchise industry and where he started to pursue his dream of becoming a business owner.
Through his experiences, Chris learned that owning a business can be tough but the resources made available to you as a franchisee definitely eases you into success.
He also learned that as a franchisee, the success of your business is still largely on you. This realization may seem daunting until you recognize that there are many paths to success that you can take. You just need to find the one that fits your style and where you can have the most fun.
How do you begin to choose the brand that’s right for you? What’s the day-to-day of a franchisee like? What obstacles can you expect and how do you overcome them?
Tune in to our Podcast to learn more about everything you WANT and NEED on franchising, investment, financing processes and options.
This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future.
https://www.facebook.com/lance.graulich
[00:00:00] LANCE: Welcome to Eye on franchising. Are you looking for business opportunities? Well, you are in the right place. We represent over 650 franchises and business opportunities. We will help you find your perfect franchise for free. We even have a free assessment on our website that will help us determine what the best businesses for you based on your investment level mindset, skillset and life experiences this is Eye on franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. I'm your host, Lance Graulich each week, we will speak to fascinating folks from the world of franchising, franchise owners and founders, franchise, funders, and franchisees are you looking to find your perfect franchise or perhaps you are an independent business owner looking to grow and scale your business by setting up a franchise, either way, our team can help you. Eye on franchising where you will [00:01:00] learn the A to Z of franchising
[00:01:06] hello again, and welcome back to Eye on franchising. I'm your host Lance Graulich. Today. I have another special guest turns out it's an old friend of mine. This gentleman spent three years. Three years with Benetrends at Benetrends financial as a funding sales consultant. In fact, he actually did financing for a couple of my candidates. My clients got them financing for their franchises. Now what better story is there? Then a guy doing franchise funding. That's investing in his own franchise. Well, today's guest my friend, Chris Rahill. welcome to Eye on on franchising, Chris.
[00:01:50] CHRIS: Thank you, man. So I'm excited to be here, man.
[00:01:52] LANCE: So excited to have you, you know, you're our first franchisee guest. We've been talking to founders and you're the [00:02:00] first franchisee and who better. So let's start off with. Of course, how did Chris Ray hill get to where he is today? So give us that backstory and as long as you want to take, go right ahead.
[00:02:12] CHRIS: Yeah. So I'm from bucks, county, Pennsylvania, which for people who don't know where that is, it's the greater Philadelphia area. So that's where I grew up loose here. Pretty much my whole life. I actually went to college down in Georgia. And study finance down there. And then, uh, I came back up to the Philly area after I graduated and started working. I worked in financial advising for about a year didn't didn't really like that. Wasn't for me. And then I got the job at Benetrends, so I started that job. So my second job, um, I was 23, I think when I started. No, I think I started there 2018. And so, yeah, like you said, I was there for about three years at Benetrends. Um, so my role there was senior funding consultant was the title. I mean, I was a sales rep there yeah, exactly. Fancy title for a sales rep, as you know. So yeah, my job really [00:03:00] was, there was the partner with franchise consultants, brokers, franchise orders, you know, people who were working with potential franchisees and moving them through that discovery process and then helping them with the financing. So my goal was to work with people like you and, uh, you know, founders of franchises, franchise owners, and have them send their clients or potential franchisees to me to help them with funding. So we did a few different things there, at Benetrends, but that's really how. Just learned a ton about the franchise industry home didn't really know much about it before that always knew that I wanted to have my own business. Didn't really know what it was though. And I did a number of things growing up and through college and stuff like that. Just little small businesses here and there, but, um, yeah,
[00:03:45] LANCE: I, I gotta, I gotta know if you always wanted to, you said you always knew you wanted you to have your own business, so what's your family history. You know, cause I had a family history with both. My grandfathers were entrepreneurs, so I had no chance of being employed by [00:04:00] someone else, watching grant, both grandpas, having their own business. I knew I had to be my own boss. Is that kind of the situation with you?
[00:04:09] CHRIS: No, not really. I mean, my. My parents both worked in corporate America. My mom was working in pharmaceuticals in like IT and different parts of that business. And then my dad's always just, my dad's actually been in sales in the same role for like 30 years. Now. He's a director of sales for a pretty big company here. So I don't know. I've always, we've always been like me and my brothers have always been like, sales is kind of where we've always went to, but I think part of it might've been just because my dad always wanted to have a business and he's done some, he's done some things on the side, but he, you know, I'm one of five. So him and my mom, you know, they had us and, and he kind of kept, he was one of those people who I'm sure you talked to him all the time. It was like, I want to do it now. It's just not the right time. So he always kept pushing down the line down the line [00:05:00] has five kids, you know, feels comfortable in his job. And now kind of never got to do that. And so I don't know, talking always talking to him about that. It was just something that I knew, like, you know, especially being young, I'm 26 now. And well, first business when I was 24 and I always just knew like, now's the time for me to do it and take risks, this kind of stuff for the act. But no, I mean, didn't come from a family of a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, my older brother owns a business too. Um, so he's been in no business herself for about four years now. So definitely. Having him do that has helped me and it be someone to kind of talk through about it and stuff like that. And then the first business I bought which we can talk about, but yeah, it wasn't really as something where it was always, my family was just entrepreneurs, but I think a combination of things.
[00:05:44] LANCE: Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's talk about your first business. Let's talk about that.
[00:05:48] CHRIS: Yeah. So I was at that address probably for about a year. My brother came to me and he's like, yo, I want to buy a business. Like, I don't know what the, what should I do? And I'm like, dude, look into franchises because at this point I'm just now learning about franchises. I'm like, [00:06:00] there's so much out there. Um, so start looking into that. So he looked into that, ended up buying a franchise called the patch boys which you might be familiar with. Um, so he bought that. Yeah. About four years ago, he bought that three, maybe a little over three years ago. So he bought that. So then he starts to look and he falls in love with it. He's like, I don't want to buy another one. And like, I think we should do it together. So then we start looking into other businesses in home services and we found this business, he actually found it. And then kind of, I came into it after the. Of him already kind of working through that discovery process, but it's a, it's a company called next gen great seal coating around in New Jersey. So right when, you know, kind of my backyard. Right. So the idea that was that he wanted to buy this and it'd be like a side business for him. And I come in and we were going to be partners in it, um, and kind of do it together. It's a seasonal business. Um, it was never going to be a full-time thing for either of us just a side business something. I think for him to add on to what he was already knowing for me to start to get my feet wet a little bit in running a business and running the day-to-day and just [00:07:00] learning. That piece of it. So you bought that either late 20, 19, or very early 2020. So we ran that for like two seasons of that business, which you know, is about six, seven months when it's warm out here and.
[00:07:15] LANCE: Not doing that business in the winter
[00:07:17] CHRIS: No so I stayed at Benetrends during that. So I was still at Benetrends through that time, you know, kind of running that business on the side with my brother. This was also when the COVID just happened. So every week I was working from home, so it gave me some flexibility to be able to do it. I just fell in love with, with that. Just running a business in general, like going out, you know, talking to customers, selling jobs, just everything. So I really just enjoy it. And I knew, you know, this is what I want to do. Not necessarily this business forever, or even for, you know, however many years, but I knew this is, this was kind of who I was and what I wanted to do through last year. I was really starting to think about. You know, what do I want to do? Um, do I want to buy a franchise? Do I want to start my own business? [00:08:00] I want to buy an existing company. So all these thoughts going through my head about what I wanted to do, and obviously being in the franchise industry, I knew a ton of people. So I was just starting to talk to people, started to talk to some of the franchise owners I was working with. You know, and it started to become a thing where every franchise owner I was working with on with like helping their franchisees, I would be like, what do I want to do when I buy this business? Like what I want to run this business. But yeah that's all to think about right? Every day I'm talking to 6, 7, 8 people who were buying a business and I'm like, I want to be in your shoes. So, you know, that was kind of the whole tail end of 2020 was, was that's what I was thinking about. And then, uh, ended end of 2020 is when I really started to look into. Like seriously, what I wanted to do. And so, you know, started going through the process with a few different franchise wars. Um, some people that I had known had relationships with and some that were newer, but started going through that process. And then, you know, I think that really started that discovery process really started for me. Like in January, I would say this year, um, was when I started seriously [00:09:00] looking into, you know, leaving better chance buying another business and that being becoming like my, my full-time thing
[00:09:07] LANCE: so, how did it, how did it become mighty dog?
[00:09:10] CHRIS: You know, Josh Gonick and, Zach Butler, the two, two family partners of mighty dog guys that I've known for a while. I mean, I've known him since I started any trends. I worked with monster tree, um, as a funding partner, I was working with Redbox plus, you know, just have known them for a while. And Josh also is from here, he lives, you know, right around the corner from, from where I grew up and I knew what they were doing before. They even like announced this on LinkedIn and Facebook or whatever. Like I knew what they had in the works
[00:09:35] LANCE: yeah, I thought because they have so much experience in the franchise industry, because you were in lending, you kind of had the inside track. They hadn't even sold a franchise yet. And you were already thinking, this is, this is possibly, this is, this is the one I'm doing.
[00:09:53] CHRIS: A little bit. Yeah. I mean, it was attracting to me for a couple reasons. One, knowing Josh and Zach, knowing that people behind the brand, we [00:10:00] held a lot of weight for me too, was in home. It was in home services, which that's where I knew I wanted to be. And I knew I wanted to be in like high ticket home service, you know, big projects, you know, big remodels, like back on it, that kind of stuff. So it fit those two boxes for me. So I started to do a lot of research on just the roofing and siding industry and like what was out there. In my area, just a lot of different stuff, just some of my own research. So, you know, new that was, that was in my head is like a main option. I looked into a flooring franchise. I looked into a painting franchise, couple of other ones. I looked into a little bit, um, like, you know, exterior cleaning and just all kinds of in the same realm of, of home service. I was probably two weeks into looking at brands. I was pretty much locked in onMighty Dog and just going through that process really as quickly as I could. Um, I mean, I started the discovery process like early January. I was out or early March.
[00:10:55] LANCE: Was the ink Even dry on the FTD by that time,
[00:10:58] CHRIS: dude. It's funny. So, [00:11:00] uh, so I went out for discovery day early March and know you're supposed to, I think, seven to 10 days from when you go out to discovery day is like your signing period. I was literally out there and I was like, when can I, when can I sign it? Like when can I sign it pay? So I flew home from Omaha Nebraska. I'm like, I don't know, Sunday, uh, I signed they're like, dude, the earliest we can get on the phone with you for this is Tuesday. So I'm like, well, let's set it up Tuesday night and got on the phone. I signed my agreement.wired franchise fee? And I was, I was in, so it was pretty I was ready to go. I was ready to go.
[00:11:34] LANCE: So tell me, you know, uh, I call it reality. Versus expectations. So what is the reality you signed March, March of 2021.
[00:11:46] CHRIS: I think it was St Patrick's day, actually. I think it was March 17.
[00:11:49] LANCE: Yeah. So, so here we are, uh, you know, however many months later we're getting to the end of 2021. So what is the reality versus [00:12:00] the expectations you had? I mean, here you are joining a fast moving crew. These guys have done this before. They've been very successful with other brands. Tell me about it.
[00:12:10] CHRIS: Man when you're going through that discovery process, it's just super exciting. Um, you're just getting really excited. You're looking at everything you're just, you know, in your head, you're projecting out what, what it could be, what you're going to do with it. So, you know, it's really exciting and that whole discovery process, and then you sign the paper. Um, you know, and you wire the payment and it's, it becomes real at that point. So now it's okay. I own this business. I need to start this. I need to figure it out. I need to figure out what I have to do here to be successful. And obviously being in a franchise system eases a little bit of that because you have people, you have a support system, you should have some type of structure, you know, people to kind of guide you through those first couple of months, but still, I mean, at the end of the day, you're as a franchisee, Um, you're owning that business. You're, you're, you know, running that business in your market. So it's your business. Um, and you know, a lot [00:13:00] of it is on you to make it happen. So little bit more nerves at that point. Um, whereas before it's just kind of a lot of excitement and. And then it becomes real. And so . Exactly. I launched, I launched pretty quick. Like I signed in March. I opened, I was out, you know, running appointments and talking to customers June, June 1st, actually I think even the week before that.
[00:13:21] LANCE: That's awesome. So, wait, let's talk about your, let's talk about your deal. How many territories you bought multiple territories? Four territories and, and, and the first territory is how much are you get a discount after that? And I don't want to hold you to the numbers, but what was that overall investment for four territories?
[00:13:41] CHRIS: Yeah, so it was, um, I was one of the first 10 franchisees to sign. So they were running a special for that. Where you, you buy three, you get a fourth free, um, franchise fee was one. 1 30, 60, 60 for one, a hundred for 2, 1 30 for three. And then I got a fourth. [00:14:00]
[00:14:00] LANCE: Yeah, that's awesome. And, and what is the, how do you open multiple territories with them? Is it you open one and then there's a time period of you open them kind of all at once
[00:14:11] CHRIS: Yeah so that's, that's another thing. I mean, there's a lot of stuff I love about service businesses. That's one of them is that you can open all four at the same time. I mean, I have. You know, I basically own all Bucks county, right? So I, I live here. I work here on my rent, my shops here, like my territory. I drive 20 minutesI'm in, one of my other territories. So you have one, you know, once you have your business started and you have your truck and you're out there is if I'm spending marketing money, I'm spending Marketing money at all four territories. So I'm, . So, you know, it's not something where I need to build out in every territory. I need an office in every one. It's like my office is actually like smack in the middle of my, my, what I own, which is perfect. Um, so it's kind of a central spot, so I'm never, you know, I'm never too far from where I need to be. Now. It is a big [00:15:00] territory. Like, I guess if you, if you looked at it like this and you drew a line from the two furthest points, I mean, yeah. It's, you could be driving an hour from appointment to appointment, but that doesn't matter. Um, I'll drive, I'll travel for, for the work. So, you know, that's not something
[00:15:14] LANCE: you just started talking about. What give us, give us your day to day
[00:15:18] CHRIS: oh man.
[00:15:20] LANCE: You do an estimate
[00:15:22] CHRIS: I'm still trying to figure that out myself every day is different man. Every day is different. Yeah. It just depends on if I have a job going on. Um, what I try to do is, you know, it's just me right now. So obviously I have my guys who worked for me and I have two roofing crews. I have a siding crew. I have a couple of repair guys that work for me. Um, but as far as W2 employees like sales people, I don't have anyone yet anybody. So it's just me. So it can, it can get hectic and like I'm running it all the appointments, like when we have a job, when we're, when I'm on the job site, I'm talking to the customer I'm picking up the check. I'm sending out the estimate, I'm following up on the estimate. You know what I mean? So I'm doing all of those things. So, [00:16:00] um, some days can get pretty hectic when I've tried to do, as I've gotten busier and like figured it out a little bit more is break my week up into, you know, let's say like, for example, this week's a good example, right? I'm doing two roofs this week and I'm doing one gutter job this week so I had a roof job yesterday and I have one tomorrow. So today was kind of like my appointment day, Monday, I ran some appointments. I just kinda got the week set up, got ready to go, got all the material, the dumpsters, everything ready for my jobs. And I have this week, you know, Wednesday have the appointment day because it's tough to run appointments. When you have a job going on, I have a job going on, you know, customer has a question. The guys need a box of nails or whatever it is. I need to go handle that. Right. So it's tough. I can't be at an appointment 40 minutes away now I got to drive back. I got to go, go to my shop. I got to go to the supplier. I got to get back to the job. I got to cancel an appointment. So that's when it can get really hectic. So what I try to do and look, obviously it never goes as, as you wind it up. But what I [00:17:00] try to do is, you know, on the days that I have big jobs going on, I try to limit the amount of other things that I'm doing. Um, I try to run a lot of my appointments. Wednesdays and Fridays to kind of free up Tuesday, Thursday for my, my work days, like actually working on homes and doing whatever we're doing that week. But I mean, yeah, it's, you know, there's always something, there's always something. I mean, um, just kind of some days I'm running around crazy with it, but, um, which is good. it means I'mbusy, so I'm not, I'm never complained about being a busy
[00:17:30] LANCE: Well and you, you know, home improvement, picking a home improvement franchise, especially an essential business like roofing. Uh, I think you're in a good spot, right? Is that fair to say?
[00:17:40] CHRIS: Yeah, I love it. Um, I think it's recession proof business. There's a lot that can be done. One thing I'm learning is that it's mighty dog roofing, but it's a lot more than that. Like this business is the business of exterior construction. It's very broad. It's, I'm learning more every day, every week about different things I can be doing. So, you know, I'm doing a lot of [00:18:00] siding work now. We're do, we've been doing gutters for a couple of months now. Um, there's a lot of stuff you can do. I mean, we're doing a job in a couple of weeks where we're building a deck for somebody we're doing concrete work. We're doing stone on the front of their house. At this point, you know, we're just doing exterior construction and remodeling. So, you know, roofing is definitely the meat of it. Um, which is great. But, um, there's, there's, there's a lot of possibilities with it, which is exciting. Uh, and like you said, I mean, it's, I think it's a recession proof business. It's, you know, somebody's roof leaking and they need a roof. Like people aren't saying, oh, we'll wait, we'll wait until next year. When we have the, when, when that makes more sense, it's like, no, you're taking care of that ASAP so
[00:18:37] LANCE: , it's only going to get worse can I ask about training. You obviously didn't have roofing experience. You felt comfortable in the home improvement space, but you know, there's going to be, there's a lot of franchisees as you prospective franchisees that I speak to. I hear it almost every day, but Lance I have no experience with that, you know, fill in the blank. [00:19:00] Now, obviously, if you have zero sales experience, you might feel a little uncomfortable in this particular business, but you can certainly hire salespeople. But tell me about the training process. And I would imagine most of the franchisees with mighty dog that you now know had zero experience in the exterior remodeling roofing business. Correct.
[00:19:24] CHRIS: Not a single one as
[00:19:25] LANCE: exactly. Bingo. So how is that handled? I mean, obviously there's a big technical side to the business,
[00:19:33] CHRIS: right. Um, so I think first there's, there's a few different ways to run this business, right? There's the way I'm doing it which is I'm doing what, everything I'm kinda like running every I'm running all of the sales appointments. I'm kind of a one man show. Right. And like, I don't plan on being that forever. I want to grow and scale this business when I'm ready to, but there's, you can also like, there's a couple of franchisees. Like the guys down in Florida, they started day one with, you know, they got five employees now they have an [00:20:00] operations guy, they have two salespeople. Uh, they have an office admin, you know, they have an entire repair crew with the foreman on that crew. Like they have. They have all that from day one, the guys who bought it down there, they are just buisness people like they are sales and marketing and business people, and that's all they need to be because they're putting the people in place to do those other parts of the business,
[00:20:22] LANCE: Growing in scale.
[00:20:23] CHRIS: Exactly And so for me, obviously, I didn't go that route, right. I didn't say, Hey, I'm going to come in and I'm going to hire, I'm going to go find a guy who works for another roofing company who knows the business, and I'm going to hire another sales guy who set up those Testo roofs, be the owner. Like I wanted to be very hands on because that's, for me, like that's how I'm really going to learn this buisness um, and then find the people. Who I want to fill those roles for me because now I've done it. I've learned it. And I know what I'm looking for in those roles and the kind of business I want to be. That's just how I, I want to do it. Right. And that's another great thing about this business is there's different ways to run it in different ways to set it [00:21:00] up and be successful with it. But as far as the training, I mean, so, you know, I had a week of, or about five days of training out in Omaha, Nebraska. Um, with Mighty dog. And, um, that was good. I mean, we spent a lot of that time out in the field, um, like learning industry knowledge, right? Because a lot of the people, if you're buying a franchise and a lot of, not everybody, but I'd say a good amount of people are coming from some type of sales background where they're probably pretty confident in their ability to buy a business and be able to sell and make money in that business. But like you said, mean very few people have the experience in that actual industry. So what was really important for me? How quickly can I learn the industry knowledge here and be able to speak to different terms and, and, you know, feel knowledgeable and confident in front of customers, right? Notonly the customer has been in front of your crew, your guys, like it's important. So that was great. And then obviously, you know, you have, you have continuous support from mighty dog with that. One of the guys from muddy dog actually came here. To PA and spent like three days with me once I opened my business. So he came on appointments with me [00:22:00] and, you know, you have that piece too. That's like the second piece of the training. And then after that, they're always there for support. Right. But now you're running the business. Right. So for me, I really leaned on two, I guess, two people specifically, one was. My subcontractor, um, the guy who does, you know, who him and his, his crews do all my work, he has taught me almost everything I know now about this business, um, that along with, you know, just going out and figuring it out and making mistakes and just learning as you go, you're not going to learn every little thing about a job until you start doing jobs and you make mistakes and, and, you know, you learn that way. Um, and then another person that really helped me with. My supplier, where I buy all my material from, um, it's a place called superior distribution. My rep there has been, has gone like over and above for me to help me with this business. I'll tell a quick story. I started the business in June 1st. Right? It's like June 12th. I get my first job woman calls me. [00:23:00] She's like, Hey, you got the I'm like, oh my God, like I got my first roof job. Like, so I'm sitting in
[00:23:04] LANCE: Now what?
[00:23:05] CHRIS: Yeah Right? So I'm sitting in the office. It's Monday. I'm like I book, I have this job booked for Wednesday. This woman was going out of town like we had to book it for Wednesday. So I'm sitting there. It's Monday. I have a, I have a new roof going on Wednesday. I have no crew. I got no one to do the job I have, I don't know even how to put a material order in, I don't know how to order a dumpster. Like I have no clue what I'm going to do. I'm like I'm 48 hours from doing this lady's roof I don't know. Hopefully she never listened to this. Um, Jenny, if you're listening to this, I mean, she's happy with the job, so think we are fine there, but, um,
[00:23:40] LANCE: Thank you Jenny. Thank you Jenny for your patience.
[00:23:44] CHRIS: Yeah. Right. Um, but anyway, I figured it out like me. I sat there with Alex. She was my rep and my supplier. He's like. We'll figure it out. I'll help you put the material and we'll get it scheduled. It'll get dropped off Tuesday. It'll be ready for you Wednesday. Here's my contact [00:24:00] for a dumpster. Call them, say you needed a dumpster Wednesday morning. And he's like, here's my contact for a, uh, uh, a sub crew who can do the work for you? Let me call them, get someone the phone. Theguy said yeah, I can do that. I'll move some stuff around. I'll I'll do it Wednesday within like 30 minutes on. All right. I think I'm good. I got to think I'm good to go for Wednesday. Did The job Wednesday. Happyhad a happy customer. It was just a crazy, like couple of days. And I was like, that's when it really hit me. I think that I'm like all right, this is like, I'm running a business now here,
[00:24:32] LANCE: Chris, me coming from, let's say a, all the franchise restaurants I've run over the years. You just described like the typical lunch rush. You know, somebody calls in sick, you got a line out the door, you got, you know, big office catering job calls in. You don't want to say no to, and you just smile your way through it. And somehow you just get it done you're not doing open heart surgery, you know?
[00:24:57] CHRIS: Exactly. And you [00:25:00] gotta be confident if you freak out and you're losing your cool, customer's going to feel that from you.
[00:25:06] LANCE: And now, now you're, now you're a pro. So let let's, let's talk about the validation stage. You know, you, you certainly know. When somebody is looking at franchise opportunities, they always have an opportunity to talk to existing franchisees to sort of really validate what's in the franchise disclosure document. You know, what kind of money they may there are they making what's the ramp up period. What's the staffing really like, and as you say. Owners take different sort of paths, your, your co you know, you're doing a lot of stuff yourself right now. Uh, and then there's other people that are doing it a little differently, hiring a lot more staff and looking to grow maybe a little quicker. It's nothing wrong with either, either route, but when you signed up. You really didn't [00:26:00] have any validation
[00:26:01] CHRIS: No um, I was the third now. Not at all. I was the third third franchisee to sign on.
[00:26:06] LANCE: So you trusted the leadership.
[00:26:08] CHRIS: I trusted two things. I trusted, well, I guess three things. I trusted the leadership and their history of, you know, growing other businesses. I trusted. This business, I trusted, like this is a business that has a lot of demand, especially right now. And then I trusted myself. Like I just had a lot of confidence and trust in myself and I was gonna make it happen. Um, and you kind of have to have that if you're going into business for yourself and you don't, you're not confident that you're going to be successful, then you know, who else is going to be, why should customers trust you with that? You know what I mean? Or people that work for you. So those, I think that. Combination of those three things was what made me feel ready to go and feel confident in it without really having any validation, without being able to talk to any current franchisees. Uh, but it's, it's been great to like the group of us, that group of like five or six of us that started all [00:27:00] together. Like in that first, you know, there were five groups, there were five of us out there for that first training, the end of the. And like, dude we still talk, you know, sometimes every day we're checking in weekly, like, you know, that group of guys has stayed really close and help each other out a lot because like, you know, we were all in it together. We all struggled through a lot of the same things getting started, um, being a part of a new business. And so another thing that's been cool with that is like being part of the initial group of franchisees that is really helping shape the brand you know, they told us, they're like, well, you guys are our first handful of guys. So yeah, I mean, being part of that, that first group was, was exciting. And, um, what I was talking about was just, you know, it was also, it's cool to be part of that group. That's, that's helping shape, shape the brand and another thing I appreciated about Mighty Dog and the corporate team that I have there was, they were very honest with us upfront, like, look, we're new. This is new for us too. Like, we are doing our best to put in the best structure and support for you guys, but we need feedback. Like we need [00:28:00] to hear what's working for you. What's not. Um, so it was cool to be able to give a lot of feedback in the beginning, like yeah. Like maybe this type of marketing, not so good right now, or, you know, maybe a certain type of technology will be helpful or like something of like are over here would be great. You know what I mean? So it was cool too. Be able to give that constructive feedback, um, and see a lot of those things, you know, come into play from some of the feedback we gave in the beginning. Um, and you know, hopefully that makes things better for the guys who are now signing on, um, and starting their business. And hopefully a lot of the mistakes that we all made in the beginning. They're not making them. And I talked to a lot of these guys now I do a validation call once a month. So I talked to a lot of these guys and, and I talk about this kind of stuff with them. And here's some things you can probably avoid.
[00:28:47] LANCE: No, but you, you hit on something that's so important in the franchise community. A lot of people forget that this brotherhood, this fraternity, I don't know if there's any ladies involved at this point, sorority, [00:29:00] you know, there's this comradery that you have. Yeah. Besides corporate besides, you know, you and your team, you know, you have the whole crew of existing franchisees to go to, um, you know, which is amazing. It's amazing. It's a, it's a great feeling to have that much support, you know, the old saying you're in business for yourself, not by yourself. That is all about franchising, right? Yeah. So there's so many people that don't know what they want. They just know they want to be their own boss. And there's these misconceptions that gotta be a millionaire to own a franchise. It's so much money and the fees, you know, why a franchise give us the pitch mean, look, you're, you're a multi, your brother did it. You did it now twice. Um, why a franchise?
[00:29:49] CHRIS: Um, so I think, you know, there's always going to be. You know, pros and cons to whatever type of business you buy or whether it's a [00:30:00] franchise or you do it on your own or whatever it is. But, um, for me, you know, I felt with this business, a franchise just made sense for me. Um, mostly because of, of the people that are behind it and the team that they're built in there. I think, you know, there are doing some things that I, I didn't, I haven't really seen, um, in franchising and my experience there. And it's just, it was just really exciting for me. Um, So, you know, having that support system behind you, I think another thing is I was ready to start this and like hit the ground running and like start making money right away and grow the business like fairly quickly. Um, it's a sign to grow any business, but I think with franchising you do get a little bit of a kickstart, um, So, you know, start to, to, to grow a little bit quicker and then like what you just said, like having that brotherhood with people, it's like you have business partners all over the country who you can bounce ideas off of, you know, who can help you. Hey, this is working for me. Um, so that that's great. Um, and yeah, I mean, you do feel like you're [00:31:00] part of a family. I agree with you a hundred percent. Like you're in business for yourself, not by yourself. And franchising's a partnership, right? Like I am partnering with Mighty Dog here. Like they are my business partner. And so, um, you know, I expect them to support me. I'm out here doing everything I need to do to, you know, make the brand proud and, and, you know, um, do the best that I can in this area and grow my business for myself. Um, but you know, they do a lot. To help support me.
[00:31:28] LANCE: So you mentioned your franchise family. So back to your family, you know, what was their reaction when you were going to do mighty dog? Like, oh boy, here he goes again.
[00:31:38] CHRIS: Um, yeah, I mean like anyone who is like close to me, like close friends, family, like, I don't think anyone was like surprised of what I was doing. You know, everyone's always known this is kind of who I am and what I want to do as far as, why am I, I don't know. I think my brother for one was like, except he was like, that's a great business. Like. That's going to be like, that's a good business. Cause he's already, he's been in the construction business now for a [00:32:00] couple of years. Like I think my parents may have been a little, like, I don't know. Like, do you think you can learn it that quick? I'm like, I'll be fine. Like, I'll figure it out. You know, my parents have always just been like, yeah, if you want to do something like we know you're going to do it, like go out there and do it and so um, been like that since I was little kind of whatever I wanted to do, they were like, yeah, go, go figure it out and do it. And so that's just kind of the mindset I've always had. I guess it's a little bit different now when it's like, you know, my career. But, uh, but yeah, I mean, everyone was super supportive, you know, no one was telling me, oh, I don't think you should do it. To be honest, the people were telling me not to do it. That would have only made me want to do it even more. So, Yeah super supportive.
[00:32:38] LANCE: So with all of your experience in franchise finance, And, and now your second franchise, what, what tips or advice is there anything that kind of floats to the top when you think of me asking this question? Any tips or advice? Because I know when you were a finance guy, you had people that you were getting [00:33:00] financing for. And you're thinking, man, I don't know if that's the right franchise for that person, or I dunno if that's a good franchise, you know, because there are some that maybe aren't right for certain people.
[00:33:10] CHRIS: Yeah Um, I would say just, I guess it's two parts. Do a ton of research, definitely. Um, because it is. It's a big financial investment, but it's, it's your life like more than even the forget the money like this is if you're leaving a career to go off and do something else, like that's a big, big decision. And so, you know, take, take your time with it. Really figure out what you want. For me. It wasn't like, this is the exact business I want. It was like, there were a couple of main pillars of things I was looking at. And like this, just check those boxes. And like, luckily for me, like, I have just fallen in love with this business stuff, like exterior remodeling. So I'm really excited about that. I'm glad that I'm not like, oh, like now I'm into this and I don't like it. So, you know, I don't know if that happens with everybody, but I'm just, I guess I'm fortunate to be in that spot. Right. But, you know, obviously, [00:34:00] so take your time, you know, ask a lot of questions, figure out exactly what you want, um, through the discovery process, before making any decisions. But then I guess on the flip side, like you can't be scared to take a risk. I just, you know, I've always been someone that thinks like, you know, my life is just about a series of opportunities and like, sometimes you jump on it. Sometimes you take it. Sometimes you don't take an opportunity and you regret it. Um, so, you know, I just try to take advantage of every opportunity when I heard about this franchise. You know, coming out, I was like, I need to buy bucks county because if I don't, someone is going to, and I'm going to forever regret, not, not doing it. Um, And, you know, would that have became true? I don't know, but like I knew I was like, I want this business and I know if I don't, if I wait around someone else is going to get it. Um, and then I'm going to be, I'm going to regret that. So, you know, I th it definitely was a risk for me. I, I weighed a lot of different options of, Hey, do I go find another sales job? Or do I just do this now? And I know who I am. I know that if I were to have going and getting another sales [00:35:00] job three years from now, I'd be in the same position and instead of being three years into building a business, I'd be starting from day one. So when I was weighing my options, that's kind of what I kept going back to. So , you know, don't be afraid to take a risk on yourself.
[00:35:13] LANCE: So eight months into it, it sounds like you're pretty happy
[00:35:17] CHRIS: Yeah. I've yeah. I love it. I mean, I just, I love every day there's days that suck I mean, when you're running a business there's days that are hard days that suck. And even on those days, I'm still like, I love what I'm doing. So that's how I, that's how I know it's for me. Cause even when it's not good, I'm still a lot. Like I still wouldn't have be more. I don't want to do anything else
[00:35:36] LANCE: hey, what's that old, old saying you'd rather work 80 hours a week for yourself than 40 hours a week for someone else
[00:35:43] CHRIS: and I'll tell you how I'm coming up on that 80 dude, these last couple months Things will slow down in the winter, but
[00:35:50] LANCE: Chris, a lot of people looking at franchise opportunities, forget about the equity component. You're building something for your future. By the time those four territories are [00:36:00] built up and have a substantial cashflow, uh, it's going to be worth a lot of money. Not that you're ever going to sell it. Cause you might hand it off to your kids someday, but any, uh, any final advice for anyone listening today, besides that they should call a franchise consultant like me to help them work through this process?
[00:36:21] CHRIS: Um, definitely that. Funny but you, before you even said that, I was going to say, like, if you're thinking about this and you think about, you know, you want to be in business for yourself, talk to somebody, talk to Lance, um, you know, these are people who, this is what they do for a living is
[00:36:35] LANCE: you get free advice,
[00:36:37] CHRIS: free advice. And yeah, I mean, I don't know. I guess just if you have that itch That you, you want to work for yourself? Jump on it. And don't wait. I mean, I'm 26. It's probably some people listening. It might be older and thinking like this kid's 26, like, what is he talking about? But I'm telling you, like, I still will think like I should have started this business five years ago. Like, what was I doing? Um, and even now I'm like, so I don't know. I just, I [00:37:00] think, um, if you have that edge and that's what you want to do, it's never going to go away. I'll never do anything else. Besides being in business for myself at this point, I don't think, um, So, yeah. I mean, take a take a risk on yourself, take a chance.
[00:37:11] LANCE: It's a one way street.
[00:37:13] CHRIS: Exactly. And once you to, I mean, I knew it when we bought the first business, I didn't even really like that business. And I was like, yeah this is what I wanna do.
[00:37:21] Chris, thank
[00:37:21] LANCE: you so much for being here. You've certainly given the listeners a, a treat and a lot of things to, you know, to think about a young, successful guy, like you is already done franchise Finance now you're doing another franchise. You're happy as can be eight months. And thank you for joining us, buddy.
[00:37:38] CHRIS: Lance thank you, man. It was good. Catching up with a good talking the last couple of weeks, getting this set up and uh, I appreciate you having me on, hopefully I can, I can come back. at some point
[00:37:46] LANCE: my pleasure. Absolutely. We'll definitely get to do a part two, have a great day. Talk to you soon
[00:37:52] CHRIS: thanks.
[00:37:53] LANCE: Take care, everybody.
[00:37:55] Thank you very much for listening today, please like follow and [00:38:00] subscribe so you don't miss anything here at Eye on franchising visit our website. Eye on franchising.com E Y E O N. franchising.com and complete our free assessments so we can assist with. Finding your perfect franchise this is Lance Graulich until next time.