Looking to get into franchising? Then this episode of Eye on Franchising is a must-listen! Paul Linenberg, franchise expert and owner of several successful franchise brands, discusses the important role that collaboration and sharing best practices play in a franchise's success. He describes the franchise selection process and how it can take anywhere from six weeks to two and a half months, depending on the candidate's readiness and situation. Linenberg emphasizes the importance of a good corporate staff and the-Paul Linenberg's background in franchising-How most people fall into franchising by accident-Why Paul loves franchising-The benefits of franchising-The importance of collaboration and sharing best practices among franchisees-The franchise selection process-The importance of culture and personality fit-The training process for new franchisees-The marketing process for the business-The qualities of the best franchisees-The importance of goal setting for Paul Linenberg has been the President of Gotcha Covered since 2010 following a varied career in sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Paul excels at being lucky, especially in being able to work with an amazing group of people at Gotcha Covered, and helping provide custom window treatments for people across the US and Canada. Paul grew up in the Detroit area and his love of the Red Wings has never wavered. He graduated from Miami (of Ohio) and has had to explain that several hundred times over the years. Paul has been living in Colorado since 2000. Paul plays hockey, practices Krav Maga, and occasionally gets behind his drum set to fill the house with slightly off-tempo but incredibly enthusiastic drum covers. Also a fan of craft beer and not cooking, Paul and his wife, Maggie, base their relationship on those three special little words - "diet starts Monday.” KEY POINTS Approximately mentioned @ 00:03:30 Paul Linenberg emphasizes the importance of choosing who you work with in Franchising. By only working with those who you trust and have a mutual desire for success with, you create a more positive and successful work environment. Approximately mentioned @ 00:12:56 The people that we're looking for to be our franchisees are people that are passionate about marketing and customer service. They're also people that are willing to put in the work to learn about our industry and build their business. Approximately mentioned @ 00:15:42 After joining the Medi-Copy franchise system, new franchisees go through an initial training program that covers the company's operating system, business model, and marketing strategy. This training is delivered both online and in person, so that franchisees can get the most comprehensive understanding of the business. Approximately mentioned @ 00:22:53 Franchisees can expect to see a return on their investment within a few years, with some earning a full-time income from their business. Approximately mentioned @ 00:23:19 Some of the qualities of the best Got You Covered franchisees include being entrepreneurial, coachable, and driven. They come from all walks of life, but share a common desire to be their own boss and build a successful business. Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA --- Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising Eye On Franchising
Looking to get into franchising? Then this episode of Eye on Franchising is a must-listen! Paul Linenberg, franchise expert and owner of several successful franchise brands, discusses the important role that collaboration and sharing best practices play in a franchise's success. He describes the franchise selection process and how it can take anywhere from six weeks to two and a half months, depending on the candidate's readiness and situation. Linenberg emphasizes the importance of a good corporate staff and the
-Paul Linenberg's background in franchising
-How most people fall into franchising by accident
-Why Paul loves franchising
-The benefits of franchising
-The importance of collaboration and sharing best practices among franchisees
-The franchise selection process
-The importance of culture and personality fit
-The training process for new franchisees
-The marketing process for the business
-The qualities of the best franchisees
-The importance of goal setting for
Paul Linenberg has been the President of Gotcha Covered since 2010 following a varied career in sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Paul excels at being lucky, especially in being able to work with an amazing group of people at Gotcha Covered, and helping provide custom window treatments for people across the US and Canada.
Paul grew up in the Detroit area and his love of the Red Wings has never wavered. He graduated from Miami (of Ohio) and has had to explain that several hundred times over the years. Paul has been living in Colorado since 2000.
Paul plays hockey, practices Krav Maga, and occasionally gets behind his drum set to fill the house with slightly off-tempo but incredibly enthusiastic drum covers. Also a fan of craft beer and not cooking, Paul and his wife, Maggie, base their relationship on those three special little words - "diet starts Monday.”
KEY POINTS
Approximately mentioned @ 00:03:30
Paul Linenberg emphasizes the importance of choosing who you work with in Franchising. By only working with those who you trust and have a mutual desire for success with, you create a more positive and successful work environment.
Approximately mentioned @ 00:12:56
The people that we're looking for to be our franchisees are people that are passionate about marketing and customer service. They're also people that are willing to put in the work to learn about our industry and build their business.
Approximately mentioned @ 00:15:42
After joining the Medi-Copy franchise system, new franchisees go through an initial training program that covers the company's operating system, business model, and marketing strategy. This training is delivered both online and in person, so that franchisees can get the most comprehensive understanding of the business.
Approximately mentioned @ 00:22:53
Franchisees can expect to see a return on their investment within a few years, with some earning a full-time income from their business.
Approximately mentioned @ 00:23:19
Some of the qualities of the best Got You Covered franchisees include being entrepreneurial, coachable, and driven. They come from all walks of life, but share a common desire to be their own boss and build a successful business.
Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA
---
Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising
Lance Graulich 00:00:08 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another fabulous episode, if I don't mind saying so myself, of, um, ion franchising, this is your host, Lance growler. And today, this guy's got you covered. You'll find out in a minute what that all means. So, uh, since 2010, he has been the president of this wonderful brand we're going to be talking about. And, uh, he's a hockey player and he practices krav MAGA. We'll hear about that. Of course. He'll probably show us some moves here. He plays the drums, and he is a fan of craft beer, as I am as well. Um, his brand is all about custom window treatments. And as I mentioned, they got you covered. So I want to welcome to the show the president of got you covered, mr. Paul Lindenberg. Welcome, Paul.
Paul Linenberg 00:00:56 Lance, thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation, and I really appreciate the time today.
Lance Graulich 00:01:02 My pleasure, Paul. So, uh, you got everybody covered. Uh, let's go back, way back. Uh, let's talk about some of your fun little, uh, hobbies. And, uh, of course, we'll get to the point of how did you get into Franchising, how'd you get to got you covered and all that.
Paul Linenberg 00:01:19 Sure. Well, I'm not good at any of the things you mentioned, but I do enjoy the heck out of it matters. That's what I say. And you and I talked about this. Life is about having fun, enjoying yourself along the way, and that needs to be infused in everything we do. Right. We can be really serious and ambitious about our business goals, but let's make sure that our lives are rich and full as well. And Franchising, of course, plays a big role in that. But, uh, I think that philosophy drives us and makes us all very interesting and fun for us along this road that we're on.
Lance Graulich 00:01:52 Absolutely. So what got you into Franchising in the first place?
Paul Linenberg 00:01:57 Yeah, I would say desperation.
Lance Graulich 00:02:01 Okay.
Paul Linenberg 00:02:02 Just teasing. Right, of course. But, uh, I got into Franchising. Like, I don't know about you, Lance, but in my experience, 80% of us got in got into Franchising accidentally. Yes, we're we're doing something, and then all of a sudden, our lives change. There's a pivot, something happens, and 20 years later, here we are. We've been in Franchising the whole time. Uh, my background is marketing, sales and marketing. I've had acquisition sales. I worked for the fortune 50 company. I've started my own business and all of that. I didn't know it at the time, but all that led to what I'm doing now, and it's all kind of combined together in a really nice way. So, yeah, accidentally into Franchising, but I found it's just a great place to be.
Lance Graulich 00:02:47 I love it.
Paul Linenberg 00:02:47 I'm glad I found it. I wish I would have found it earlier, and I've just been here for, whatever, 22 years and, um, just thrilled about it. Absolutely.
Lance Graulich 00:02:55 So what do you love most about franchising? Because, as you said, most people don't wake up and say, I have to get into franchise. We all sort of fall in it. I always talk about it. Is it a, ah, laboratory accident? Is it, uh, something you're born into? But what do you like about it?
Paul Linenberg 00:03:17 I love it because it's a voluntary association. Right. I get to choose as the president of Gutter Covered, I get to choose everybody that I get to work with. I'm the luckiest guy around. I get to choose my staff, I get to choose which franchise owners I work with. The uh, relationship between us, uh, the corporate and our franchise owners is it built heavily on trust and a mutual desire for owners to be successful. But I don't have to be a, uh, manager. I'm not a manager. It wouldn't work for me. I mean, I manage my staff, but it's a very loose team. We all have a response abilities, we're all diligent and all that stuff. But I don't have to manage our franchise owners. They're independent business owners. So they come to this venture, they get on the wagon with us. Everybody comes from a unique perspective. They all have their own motivations, their own skill sets. And you can take all that individuality and find a way for everybody to be successful. And so to be a part of that, I mean, what's better than that as a business person to help people achieve truly the things that they want out of life. The income, the equity, the lifestyle. It sounds like a cliche, I know, but it really happens. And it's just thrilling to be, again, to be a part of it. I love it.
Lance Graulich 00:04:33 And what's crazy is most people don't understand there's a heck of a process. Like you said, you get to choose who, uh, you said a voluntary association. Is that what you called it?
Paul Linenberg 00:04:46 Yeah, that's right.
Lance Graulich 00:04:47 Yeah, I love that. Uh, and it's a two way street because they get to pick you and you get to pick them.
Paul Linenberg 00:04:54 And hopefully there's a match that's so important. It's incumbent on those people who want to be entrepreneurs to do their due diligence and find the right match for them. Right. Because it is very much a mutual thing. Um, it's not about hey, will your check clear? Yes. You can be a part of Got You Covered or any good franchises. It's not what makes a good franchise system. What makes a good system is when it is mutual and there's a high level of opportunity for both parties and a good cultural fit. And again, just love it. But it is very much a two way street.
Lance Graulich 00:05:30 So Paul, describe for everybody listening that has not heard of Got you covered. What exactly is Got you covered? I hinted that it is definitely about window treatments. Yeah, sounds like it's about window treatments. But give me the description of everything that you do.
Paul Linenberg 00:05:48 Yeah, great, thanks for the opportunity. It is custom window treatments, and it is everything for the interior of a window. So anywhere from window film, blind, shutter, shades, the traditional products you might be aware of, all the way to the technology side, the frontier of our business, which is integrating our products into smart home automating. Imagine waking up and your roller shades open up with you. Or when the sun goes down, the shades go down with you. Or if it's too hot, the sun is beaming in you're in Vegas, out in your pool, lance, and you finish your third margarita and, uh, you're ready to go into a cool house. The shades will go down and keep the house cool. So a lot of really cool things to voice control and all that stuff. So our owners, um, consult with homeowners. Our franchise owners consult with homeowners to help understand their needs, their wants, their desires, and then educate the homeowner and describe the solutions and the opportunities, the options that they have, and ultimately, in a very collaborative way, find solutions that work for those homeowners. And then we install them professionally and make sure they work. And we end up leaving the home, which has been improved, it's been beautified, it's now more energy efficient. And, um, our franchise owners often leave the home with hugs, sometimes a bottle of wine, sometimes an invitation to come back to the party that weekend or whatever. It's a really happy, uh, sort of relationship that our franchise owners have with the homeowners and our clients.
Lance Graulich 00:07:16 So you guys have been franchising, uh, quite a while.
Paul Linenberg 00:07:20 Yeah, our roots go way back, actually, into the 90s, but we kind of regrouped, um, regathered and rebranded in 2009. So I would consider that the start of the modern day. Got you covered. Um, we have 155 owners, plus now across the US and Canada, um, serving their communities.
Lance Graulich 00:07:40 155. How many of those would you say own more than one territory?
Paul Linenberg 00:07:46 Just a few. Just a few. Um, many borrowers have expanded, so it's one operation in a larger territory, but then there are a couple that actually have two locations, if you will. So that can be a part of it.
Lance Graulich 00:07:59 So you don't need a lot of territory to make a lot of money?
Paul Linenberg 00:08:03 No, you don't, really. Um, and we can get into that whenever, but, uh, yeah, the overhead is really low. The investment is really low.
Lance Graulich 00:08:11 Yeah, let's talk about the investment. Let's dive into the item seven or close to it, whatever the averages are.
Paul Linenberg 00:08:18 Yeah, sure. For under $100,000, you can invest and have enough money to acquire the franchise and have the funds needed to launch, respectively. Right. With the marketing, you need to launch and grow the business. And because it's home base, the operating expenses are quite low. And you can make, I'll say, 25% to 35% of your total sales in net income. So if you're selling $300,000, $3,000, which is not a huge number relative that's close to, or can be a six figure income and all the disclaimers, uh, please apply here. But, um, yeah, it could be a really lucrative business, working from home without a ton of investment. The potential ROI and Got you covered, we think is among the highest you see in franchising.
Lance Graulich 00:09:10 Yeah, well, first of all, I saw that you were ranked or rated within the Franchise Business Review. Which franchise? Business review. Um, just essentially listens to the franchisees of each brand that they are doing these surveys for. So clearly, uh, one of the strongest indications of success and someone's potential future success is how happy are the franchisees and the system they're looking to get involved with? And clearly, you guys have done something incredibly correct. Is that fair to say?
Paul Linenberg 00:09:46 Yeah, we pay them handsomely to report to give us good results in the service. Of course.
Lance Graulich 00:09:53 No, we know you just have happy franchisees because you've got amazing support. Uh, let's talk a little bit about that. What is your kind of a two fold question? Talk about the support that franchisees get and uh, sort of that secret sauce, if you will, which might be the same, and why there's other window treatment franchises, why got you covered?
Paul Linenberg 00:10:19 Yeah, we could spend a lot of time talking about that, but, um, go right ahead. I saw something the other day. Lance said it was a quote. It said, um, culture beats process every time. And I love that because culture is when, when someone's interested in gotcha cover. There's two things we look at to decide whether we want to extend an offer. One of them is, are they going to be successful in our system? Do they have the skill set to drive? Are they here for the right reasons? All that. The second one is, are they a cultural fit? And we take that very seriously because we know that, um, putting a square peg in a square hole is a lot more effective than a round peg in a square hole. Right? So by bringing people in that share our values and want to achieve the things that we're here to help them achieve, then we're not fighting. There's not a tension, right? It's, it's just all aligned. We're like a pack of sled dogs. We're all pulling that sled in the same direction. We're not losing energy, not a tug of war. Yeah, well said. And so the support comes from our franchise first mentality. Um, I didn't come up with that term, but, uh, I've heard it actually from our apparent company, Five Star Franchising. Um, but it's really short and it just describes our view on franchise owners. Right. They're our clients, and so we support them. And it's very extensive. Um, we have checklists hundreds of rows long and things we do to get our owners on board and up to speed. And launching their business and everything and then supporting them along the way. And there's ongoing webinars, there's conferences, there's just a private groups communication. There's a ton of ways that we help our owners not just learn from corporate, because that's important, but what our owners find most valuable is learning from each other. And so we have a bunch of ways that we do that where corporate is not involved. But we let our owners have some mechanisms to communicate with each other because they're in the trenches every day, right. They can hear from us and that's great, but to hear from each other, that's invaluable. And so it's a really big part of what got your cover provides as a franchise or yeah, a lot of.
Lance Graulich 00:12:29 People don't know about that collaboration, that collaboration with and sharing best practices. And I know this because I was a franchisee of a few brands and a lot of people don't think of that. And when people say to me, well, why should I do a franchise? Can't I just create my own brand? And I smile and I say absolutely. You're in America, you get to do.
Paul Linenberg 00:12:51 Whatever you want to do.
Lance Graulich 00:12:52 But if you think for a second paying uh uh. You're ducking out on a franchise fee or a small royalty fee to do something that is going to level the playing field for you, there's a lot of people that are helping you along the way to be successful in a great franchise brand and obviously got you covered. Well, got them covered.
Paul Linenberg 00:13:14 Yeah, thanks. Yeah, for sure. And when, uh, we talking with the candidates, we make sure we bring that up because it's a hidden benefit. Right. We all get the macro benefits of a franchise. But when you come into a system and you have access to a good corporate staff hundreds of years in this business, but then you have access to 150 coaches that are experts in your field, how meaningful is that? It's incredible if you think about it. So, yeah, God bless the person that starts their own business. Hey, kudos. Right? Ultimate respect. But man, um, it's a tough road. Right. And so that's why one of the reasons I love franchising is because you don't have to do that. You can join the system with just incredible level of support that improve your odds of success exponentially.
Lance Graulich 00:14:04 So Paul, describe the process of franchisee selection. I tell people, nobody's sliding your credit card after the first phone call. That's not how franchising ever worked. So describe that process. How long does it really take from if I, as a franchise broker, introduce you to a candidate of mine? Uh, is it as quick as six weeks? Is it two and a half months? And kind of describe those milestones along the way on how you do it?
Paul Linenberg 00:14:38 Yeah, good question. Um, so we have flexibility in our process and really everything we do because we know people are coming from individual situations. So we're m many franchise systems are very rigid. And I think it's intended to prove that a potential franchise can follow a plan and be disciplined. But we, we are not that way. We just think that there are steps along the way. But your timing is yours, right? You may be ready to go 100%. You may have a vacation, and you want to do that for three months and then come back into the world and start your business.
Lance Graulich 00:15:14 Three months vacation. I'm doing that.
Paul Linenberg 00:15:17 You're living the dreamlands. Um, the process, like the steps is really about eyes wide open. It's getting that candidate to understand as fully as possible. So it's learning about gut recovered from our staff, of course. But the most important part in the process, I think you agree, is talking to franchise owners, right? Because they can hear it from us all day long. But we insist, and m most good franchise systems, I think, do they insist that the candidates talk to the active franchise owners because they need to hear it from them. And so what we tell our franchise owners who are on the inside, they used to be on the outside looking in, now they're on the inside, and they have other candidates. They've been in their shoes, so they get how important it is. All we ask of our franchise owners is be available as you can be, and be open and honest with those candidates. Tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because the last thing we want is for anybody to join Gutcher government and invest. Change the course of your professional career in your life, only to find out that something was different than you expected. That's the worst thing that can happen.
Lance Graulich 00:16:27 No surprises. My favorite mantra.
Paul Linenberg 00:16:30 Oh, very good. We're of like minds in that when we get to that point where both of us, we think there's a good fit, then we just do the paperwork and make it happen. But it can be weeks. It can be months, but it can be weeks for someone that's, uh, really motivated.
Lance Graulich 00:16:50 Love it. Do you have a Discovery day or meet the team type day?
Paul Linenberg 00:16:54 We do, yes. And uh, that's kind of the final step. Uh, most of the information has been passed back and forth, and that's the day that we evaluate culture more than anything. Personality culture is this a good fit? And warts and everything for us. One of my favorite things, Lance, is, uh, I have to get this in because I just love it. Uh, kind of a life quote is be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. And I just love that because it speaks to authenticity. And we've talked about just like, the path around. Let's enjoy the path run and be authentic and be real. We all have our roles, but there's no ego. It got you covered. We're just all doing our thing. Again, a line like those lead dogs trying to get that sled, uh, as far as we can, as quickly as we can get there.
Lance Graulich 00:17:40 I love it. Fabulous. And everyone, for those listening at home, every prospective franchisee at some point in the process will get a, ah, franchise disclosure document. FTD for short. There's 23 items in there, and clearly there's some very helpful information within that document. But as Paul just said, speaking to existing franchisees is certainly my favorite part of the process. If you can find three, four, or five people at a brand that are thrilled and happy and excited about their future with the brand, could be a brand for you as well.
Paul Linenberg 00:18:19 That's right.
Lance Graulich 00:18:20 Good. So, uh, we kind of talked about money a little bit, but in that item 19, uh, within that franchise disclosure document, there's 23 items I mentioned. Item 19 is an earnings claim. And, uh, you have some type of earnings claim in there, and that item 19. And I'm sure that makes people happy. Is that fair to say?
Paul Linenberg 00:18:42 Yeah. Yeah. Because it answers the question that's hard to answer otherwise, which is, how much.
Lance Graulich 00:18:48 Money am I going to make?
Paul Linenberg 00:18:50 Thank you. You said it's more direct than I could last, but what is the economic opportunity here? Right? Shouldn't that be a pretty big, pretty important part of the decision making process for anybody? Um, so there are strict guidelines as a franchise system, not that we would ever do this, but you can't cherry pick, you can't say these are the top guys, and then ignore all the other guys. Right? Right. We really, really like that. Because again, it goes back to the, like, let's just be open an honest and transparent about what this is. So what we do is, um, we're on a path to improve the data that we collect and the reporting that our owners get and all that stuff. And so recently, we've been able to expand the metrics that we can include in that item 19. So in our item 19, it shows you the average number of appointments, the average sale amount, the margin, and all those things help you. Those are the financial levers in our business. So you can take our item 19 and play around and say, okay, well, if I do this, then this happens. If I do this, this happens. And then of course, we do have, uh, income or revenue by a quartile. So our top 25%, our 2nd 25%, third, and then fourth. So really you can get a pretty good picture of the financial, uh, how much money are you going to make at get you covered?
Lance Graulich 00:20:08 Yeah. No, and that's it. I mean, look, at the end of the day, everybody wants financial freedom. And you want to be surround yourself with people you enjoy spending time with, uh, franchising. If you're leaving the corporate world, you just want to know that you have the ability to make even more money and build your own empire for your family. And clearly got you covered as a great option. So they'll see that in your FDD. I just wanted to hear that a little bit from you. One of the things that I wrote down here that I loved, um, got You Covered, uh, I was told, is the best opportunity that you have never even thought of. The best opportunity that you've never even thought of. And that's a lot of what Franchising is, because not only do people not wake up in the morning and say, yeah, maybe I'll get a franchise, you certainly don't think I want to have a window covering or a window treatment franchise. There's a lot of franchises that don't sound sexy, but I tell people all the time, paul, you've heard me say this is that money is sexy. And that buys you, uh, your freedom. And, uh, at the end of the day, what are your skills? Are your skills transferable? Of course they are. Uh, when you're looking for franchisees, I would imagine 150 franchisees. Is it fair to say that from all walks of life, you might have someone that was an attorney, you might even have someone that's a doctor, a teacher, um, all over the place, right?
Paul Linenberg 00:21:50 Yeah. And I'm glad you said that, because what you do and your peers do is help people understand that there's not a person on the planet that grew up as a child wanting to sell window treatments. It doesn't exist. But that's what Franchising is. And so you and again, it's so helpful to get people to understand that it makes our job easier because Rick, are you a dog poop collecting franchise? Right. Are you a window treatment franchise? Made franchise? Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. It's what it provides to you. Um, um, uh, our franchise owners do come from all walks of life. You mentioned a doctor, and it just made me think that we actually have a doctor who's emigrating from Guatemala to join Got You Covered. So in terms of all walks of life, it is everything. And it's not just from the US. Or Canada. It's crazy, right? Yeah. People who are a lot of unrest in the world, and this is the beacon still the beacon of freedom around the world, I think. So. People are coming here to start their businesses, and it's homemakers and teachers and software engineers and all the above can, uh, find success. That got you covered.
Lance Graulich 00:23:08 So, Paul, when you think in terms of being with Got You Covered a long time, when you think of the best franchisees you have in this system, what are those qualities of those individuals? And again, I'm also assuming that while they share some of those qualities, some of the same qualities, they're probably all, again, from all walks of life, right? Is that fair to say?
Paul Linenberg 00:23:33 Specific goals they want to achieve for themselves? Income lifestyle. We have owners lands that are now on the other side of their business arc, where they are not active in the business so much anymore. They're now macromanaging instead of micromanaging. And I was just at a top award, top Performers event in, uh, the Dominican Republic with some of our top folks, super high caliber people. It was an amazing event, and two of our top folks said, you know what, I'm a little bit bored, Paul. These are guys that are making not seven figures, but darn close to it. And, uh, their businesses are worth whatever. And now they have people running their company. What's better than that in life? Is there a better dream than what they're living right now? Um, we're just thrilled to be a part of their success.
Lance Graulich 00:24:28 So how many people were at this, um, meeting in the Dominican Republic?
Paul Linenberg 00:24:32 Well, there were eight franchise owners, uh, and me. And so it was tough, Lance, because I had to hang on the beach with them. Um, I had to go in the water with them. We had to go on excursions. I couldn't leave them alone by the pool. I didn't want them to drink by themselves. So it was a hard time for me, but I survived.
Lance Graulich 00:24:50 I feel so badly for you, Paul. This is terrible.
Paul Linenberg 00:24:54 Thank you. Thank you for your sympathy.
Lance Graulich 00:24:58 Uh, it's wonderful. I would imagine, as you have those meetings. I've told people before, brands like McDonald's, um, that Big Mac was invented by a franchisee. Uh, and he gave the idea to corporate, and their corporate chef figured out how to make the perfect Big Mac. And same thing with the filet of fish. They wanted to have a fish item on Fridays. That's how it started. So the best brands have this awesome collaboration. And, uh, it sounds like, uh, I'm happy here. No surprise that you're already doing it as well. Essentially picking the brains of top performers so you can figure out how to take some of the bottom performers and make them even better, quicker.
Paul Linenberg 00:25:42 Right? Yeah, it's interesting. You're, uh, a top guy. There's this operating system and business called the US. And a lot of small businesses, so you're aware of it. We're just getting into this. Uh, one of our top guys is into this now, and so he kind of introduced that to his peers, the leaders in our system. And because it comes from him again, we're doing it too. But hearing it from him is a lot more meaningful. So now, as a group, this top group is now meeting on a monthly basis. Just a small group to consult with each other. They're at a different stage of business than most, right. They have different needs. They've grown their business to a certain level. So now we're hosting these monthly calls we're going to have with this group to advance them and talk about items and issues that are specific to them. So yeah, that came from them. Right. And again, I'm facilitating, but it's not my content. I'm just letting them talk to each other and helping it move along.
Lance Graulich 00:26:44 No, this is absolutely awesome. Which really shows why you're, uh, on the franchise business review rankings. Um, because that collaboration. The fact that I was a franchisee of multiple brands and got to see how the best brands can work that collaboration with existing franchisees and understanding best practices. I've had plenty of franchisees call me and say, how is your labor so low? Because a lot of brands share numbers. You sign up for sharing numbers and taking a look. And again, best practices. So I, uh, love that. I love hearing that from you. Let's talk a little bit about training. So when somebody joins your system, what is that training like? Um, is it online? I'm sure there's some sort of face to face. How does that all work?
Paul Linenberg 00:27:34 Yeah, I wouldn't imagine it's like m most good franchise systems, there's an onboarding process. Like, once all the documents are signed, then there's a call. There's things to do prior to coming to training. But training, we're based in Denver, so all of ours come here for a full week and learn. There's a million things we can teach them, but we only have time for 100,000 of those things in that first week. So we do that, and then the second week, third week, fourth week. It's a very guided process, and there's a million things flying at our owners that's drinking from a firehose. So we just make that manageable. And again, some people are foot on the gas, like, go, go. Others are like, I want to have some comfort and confidence in myself as this builds. My confidence comes from knowledge. And so they want to be a little more deliberate about that. That's fine, too. We don't demand anything there. It's just a matter of, um, getting ready to launch. And then once they're ready to launch, we kind of get all together again and say, hey, let's talk about all these things. Let's make this final checklist. Are you good to go? And then it's go time. And then they just get out and start kicking around and out in the communities and building a business. Love it.
Lance Graulich 00:28:47 So, how about marketing? Talk a little bit about marketing. It, uh, seems to be this black hole for some people. Like, what do they do with my marketing dollars? How do I, uh, communicate in my community what I'm doing?
Paul Linenberg 00:29:01 Yeah, that's my background. It's my passion. It's what tickles my brain and gets me excited. Um, I like to think I've got you covered as a marketing company that just happens to sell winter treatments, nobody else. Our owners don't have to think about themselves that way, but that's how we train them. We want them to be marketers, in part at least. So we teach them the fundamentals of. Marketing and consumer behavior in our industry and give them tools. Ours is a very much get out into the world and meet people and establish referral networks, uh, in conjunction with a ton of digital marketing. So it's this approach where at the corporate office, we do the things that we can do that, um, are automated and that require sort of scale and horsepower. So, uh, for example, we post, um, on, um, four social media profiles for our owners two or three times a week. So we automate that stuff. But then we also recommend actually, we don't just recommend, we suggest. We want them to also do social media because we want them to be the face of get you covered in their markets. So it's this co branded collaborative process where we have a whole host of tools and resources and programs and recommended budgets. And then again, they're the face of got you covered in their markets.
Lance Graulich 00:30:19 And if they've never done social media on their own, like, uh, quite a few people have not, then you show them how to do all that.
Paul Linenberg 00:30:28 We show them how to do that. Or we point them to a resource that can do it for them. You either spend your time or your money, but you need to do it. So we make sure that whatever you do is as recently as last year, Lance, we had somebody come to training that didn't have a Facebook account. So, yeah, those people still exist out there. They're getting rare and rare. Although I think more people are closing down their Facebook accounts now.
Lance Graulich 00:30:49 Yeah, could be. Yeah, absolutely. So many different social media platforms. But, yeah, Facebook, uh, if you're in business, you have to be on it.
Paul Linenberg 00:30:58 You got to be, um so, uh.
Lance Graulich 00:31:01 We talked about training, we talked about marketing. Uh, we also talked about the type of people, generally speaking well, let's talk about the traits more specifically, okay. Who are the people that you're looking for that would make a great franchisee, and also who are you not looking for?
Paul Linenberg 00:31:20 Yeah, in terms of, like so I mentioned work ethic drive. They need to be there for the right reasons, and that's something that we consider. We don't want someone like this is their only opportunity, although that does exist. Right. They can't get back into the corporate world. That's sometimes enough. The right driver, sometimes it's not. But anyhow the right work ethic, the right reason, we want to see an example of that in their lives. And then from a personality perspective, we're a people business, and you certainly don't need to be in sales, but if you're good at and enjoy establishing and building and nurturing relationships with people, that's 90% of it, honestly. Um, if there was one personality trait that we would want, that would be it. And of course, you need to be savvy. You need to know how to follow a plan. But the perceptions in our business are that you need to be design oriented or creative, and that's not true. Or that you need to be able to work a drill and install product, which is also not true. So, again, it's people from all walks of life, uh, and so that's the high level kind of person we're looking for. Those are the people in our top group.
Lance Graulich 00:32:28 Yeah.
Paul Linenberg 00:32:29 Got it.
Lance Graulich 00:32:30 I always tell people about my friend, uh, that has 19 great clips hair salons. He's bald and does not know how to cut hair. So that is Franchising.
Paul Linenberg 00:32:39 Right. Well said.
Lance Graulich 00:32:42 Give us a tip about Krav MAGA. For those that don't know what Krav McGah even is.
Paul Linenberg 00:32:48 So Crab McGah is a realistic self defense program. It's not karate or something that's more traditional and done for show. It's very real world. Like, if you're in a bar and someone grabs you, what do you do? Right. What's that?
Lance Graulich 00:33:04 Uh, how do you get away quickly?
Paul Linenberg 00:33:06 Well, that's the best thing you can do. Right? And so whatever skills I have in defending myself pale in comparison to my desire not to get into any altercation, because you just never know that person has a weapon, they're on drugs, whatever it is. Avoid physical conflict if at all possible. If not, then I'm ready. But I certainly don't want to, uh, do anything to encourage, uh, physical confrontation.
Lance Graulich 00:33:35 Well, I appreciate that tip for everyone. And final thoughts, final words of wisdom. You dropped a lot of knowledge today, and I really appreciate it. The audience certainly does as well. Final thoughts or words of wisdom on you. And got you covered.
Paul Linenberg 00:33:51 Yeah. Well, it's been a great conversation. Lam, thanks for making this happen, uh, for us today. But yeah, for the people listening, um, business ownership is not for everybody. I think it takes a special breed, but I think that I applaud anybody who seriously considers it. It's just about exploring yourself and your goals in your life and respect yourself enough to go through the process with someone like Lance or the franchise partners that he might recommend to you to see an eyes wide open. Right. Make sure that wherever path you take, and if you decide that Franchising isn't right for you, that's a good decision. Right. Um, but otherwise, if you think business ownership is right for you, take your time, make sure it's a good fit, because that's the thing that's going to dictate your level of happiness, how successful you're going to be, what you ultimately get out of your investment. So just, again, be yourself and everybody else has taken, like a marriage.
Lance Graulich 00:34:49 You have to find the right fit, the right match for you.
Paul Linenberg 00:34:53 Well, absolutely.
Lance Graulich 00:34:55 Paul, thank you so much for being here. And, uh, we'll talk soon, and, uh, my audience appreciates you as well, I am sure.
Paul Linenberg 00:35:03 Truly my pleasure, Lance. Thank you.
Lance Graulich 00:35:05 Thank you.