Welcome to Eye On Franchising, where we bring you the latest insights and success stories from the world of franchising. In this week's episode, we have an exclusive interview with two industry leaders who have revolutionized the home service space. Join us as we dive into the fascinating journey of Tim Swackhammer, the founder of Mold Medics, and Ron Bender, the Chief Development Officer of Threshold Brands. Discover how these trailblazers transformed their businesses from humble beginnings to a staggering 22 locations. Explore their unique approach to mold remediation and their unwavering commitment to indoor air quality. Uncover the hidden dangers of excessive humidity and the detrimental effects it can have on your health. Learn why Mold Medics is the go-to franchise for those who prioritize the well-being of their families. But that's not all. Tune in to hear about the exciting franchise opportunities with Mold Medics. We're looking for passionate individuals who are ready to make a difference in their communities. Whether you're an owner-operator or an investor, we have a franchise model that fits your goals. Don't miss this chance to be part of a growing industry and an exceptional brand. Join us on Eye On Franchising and gain valuable insights into the world of franchising. Like, follow, and subscribe to stay updated on future episodes. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you soon! - Ron Bender's entry into franchising - Tim Swackhammer's family franchise business - Mold Medics' focus on indoor air quality - Impact of allergies and COVID on air quality - Environmental issues addressed by Mold Medics - Franchise investment and education process - Launch of new franchise focused on air quality - Customer service and assessment process - Partnership with Threshold for scaling - Importance of digital marketing and SEO - Competition and reputation management - Expansion through acquisitions - Low overhead and high margin nature - Benefits and fit of franchising - Importance of collaboration and learning - Mold Medics' dedication to franchisee success - Personal significance of franchising --- 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
Welcome to Eye On Franchising, where we bring you the latest insights and success stories from the world of franchising. In this week's episode, we have an exclusive interview with two industry leaders who have revolutionized the home service space. Join us as we dive into the fascinating journey of Tim Swackhammer, the founder of Mold Medics, and Ron Bender, the Chief Development Officer of Threshold Brands.
Discover how these trailblazers transformed their businesses from humble beginnings to a staggering 22 locations. Explore their unique approach to mold remediation and their unwavering commitment to indoor air quality. Uncover the hidden dangers of excessive humidity and the detrimental effects it can have on your health. Learn why Mold Medics is the go-to franchise for those who prioritize the well-being of their families.
But that's not all. Tune in to hear about the exciting franchise opportunities with Mold Medics. We're looking for passionate individuals who are ready to make a difference in their communities. Whether you're an owner-operator or an investor, we have a franchise model that fits your goals.
Don't miss this chance to be part of a growing industry and an exceptional brand. Join us on Eye On Franchising and gain valuable insights into the world of franchising. Like, follow, and subscribe to stay updated on future episodes. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you soon!
- Ron Bender's entry into franchising
- Tim Swackhammer's family franchise business
- Mold Medics' focus on indoor air quality
- Impact of allergies and COVID on air quality
- Environmental issues addressed by Mold Medics
- Franchise investment and education process
- Launch of new franchise focused on air quality
- Customer service and assessment process
- Partnership with Threshold for scaling
- Importance of digital marketing and SEO
- Competition and reputation management
- Expansion through acquisitions
- Low overhead and high margin nature
- Benefits and fit of franchising
- Importance of collaboration and learning
- Mold Medics' dedication to franchisee success
- Personal significance of franchising
---
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 00:00:00 You. 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, skill set 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, franchisors 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 learn the A to Z's of franchise. Hello everyone. And this is Lance Graulich, host of Eye on Franchising. And we're back. We have a, powerhouse group of gentlemen. A group is a group too. Yeah, it's a group because it's three of us, I think. So, this is a franchise dedicated to, I would like to say, the Air that we Breathe. And the air that we breathe has been an important thing, I think, all of our lives. 1974, because I'm pretty old, there was an amazing song by The Hollies called The Air that We Breathe. So I'm going to bring on the two gentlemen responsible for this brand. Tim Swackhammer is the founder of Mold Medics and my good friend, old friend, young friend, Ron Bender, who is, I think chief Development officer, chief Growth officer of Threshold Brands. He's got a lot of titles. So, welcome, gentlemen, to the show. Yeah, thank you for having us.
Ron Bender 00:02:03 Pleasure to be here, Lance.
Lance Graulich 00:02:04 I love it. I love it. So guys, let's start with, how the heck did both of you get in the world of franchising and how did Mold Medics come about? So, Ron, why don't you start us off? Sure.
Ron Bender 00:02:18 I got into, franchising, 25 short years ago. I was a retail guy in my first, career. I was a retail multi, unit manager for a big, national firm. And I was recruited by a wireless retail franchise called Wireless Zone. And they were looking for someone to run operations in a totally new growth market and also do franchise sales. So, that was a beautiful twelve year run with that first franchise. And I didn't know anything about franchising at the time. So it was all learning on the job from all the great folks at the IFA and the rest of the folks in the franchise space. And then, coincidentally, I happened to meet Tim back then. So, let's let Tim tell you how he, got into franchising.
Lance Graulich 00:03:05 Well, we are definitely going to do that. I did have one follow up question. To that. So when you fell into Franchising, what were you expecting to do with your life before you discovered Franchising, and what was that first impression?
Ron Bender 00:03:20 Well, I was very happy in retail, again. Being a multi unit manager, I had anywhere from twelve to 15 retail stores. And I loved customers and I loved my teams, my employees. And I was actually not the optimal corporate middle manager because I made the huge, apparently huge mistake of treating my store managers as if they were owners and giving them much more authority and the capability of making a lot of decisions to build their business. And that was not popular with my upper management, with the ownership. And when I got into Franchising, the specific reason I made that jump was that now I got to actually work with independent owners and I got to keep on treating them the way I had learned to treat operators and yet have much more tenure, much more long term capability with those folks and long term relationships. It's been absolutely great.
Lance Graulich 00:04:19 I love it when a plan comes together. Tim, welcome. So, can't, wait to hear this story. Nice to meet you face to face,
Lance Graulich 00:04:30 Tim
Lance Graulich 00:04:30 You as well. And yeah, my story is, an interesting one. So, as Ron Alluded, we met during our time together at Wirelessone, which was my first real foray into franchising as well. I'm actually second generation franchisee so my father was involved in Franchising for pretty much my entire childhood with, a few different brands over the years. And I came on, and started actually working with him and my brother while I was in college. So I came on, we were opening up, I believe it was store number four, whenever I came on. And what was that? Was that wireless zone with the wireless phone? Yes. Got it. And over the following years, I continued with my degrees that I have done absolutely nothing with in any capacity. I have a master's in criminology. so that's, collecting a lot of dust, but fun experience nonetheless. It's all a stepping stone, right? Exactly. So once, I got involved with, the Wireless stores on the brazen side, it was really interesting. And I really fell in love with the business, with just business ownership in general, managing people and really seeing it grow. during the following years, the three of us took that from four locations up to, 22 locations. Wow. And over the course of about a decade, and basically, as we continued to grow with that, eventually we recognized that we wanted to get involved in a few other things, other types of businesses as well. so we dabbled into some other franchises over the time and a couple of other independent businesses. And through some of that experiences is where we saw the opportunity within the home service space, and particularly within mold remediation. With my background on the wireless side and so focused on sales and customer service, I saw in the home services that it really was fairly easy to stand out from the crowd by focusing on that customer experience. Because there's a lot of really good contractors and craftsmen out there, but many times they leave a ton to be desired on the actual customer experience. So saw a big opportunity there and that we could really come in and look like rock stars by doing things that came very natural to
Lance Graulich 00:06:38 So Tim, I have to ask, what was that market research like, falling into a category, a niche like mold remediation and knowing that not only, should I do that, but service generally is not very good in this particular sector as well. How did you figure all that
Lance Graulich 00:06:57 So, a lot of it, I mean, specifically where we went with mold remediation, we're a little bit different than your typical company, that offers that service. Most of the companies that offer mold remediation are your larger restoration contractors. Where they're coming in, they're doing the full water damage, they're doing fire, all that kind of stuff. And mold as well. we're different in that we really focus on specifically the indoor air quality side. And really, I had kind of dipped my toe in it and knew a little bit about the industry. But as I got further down that I noticed that there was an entire group of customers that were very focused about, or focused on their health and the health of their family members and how their environment was influencing that. And I always say that my wife jokes that I don't have a hobby. My hobby is researching other hobbies. And I leveraged that a bit here and went very much down that rabbit hole of, people who have been exposed to mold, people who have these homes, that are just making them sick and what are they experiencing? And it was really through that that I saw, okay, there's an opportunity because other companies aren't offering and aren't really interested in helping these clients. And allergies have never been worse, it seems, across the country for so many people that I know that never even had allergies. So, isn't that a tagline of yours? Something about allergens? Yes, home, allergen experts and yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head, especially during COVID We saw a lot of interesting behavior because people went from spending most of their time in their office or at work to tons of people were spending way more time in their homes, cooped up in basement offices and those kind of things that, they didn't really have that same kind of experience before. So a lot of people were more aware of these issues than they ever have been in the
Lance Graulich 00:08:44 So gentlemen, let's define for the audience exactly what Mold Medics is. We touched on mold remediation and there's other services. But why don't you gentlemen sum up what it is for the audience. Specifically.
Ron Bender 00:09:11 There are huge, issues, and I live in Florida where we have a lot of humid weather. We have huge issues here with extra humidity. And extra humidity, enables mold growth. And there's so many different types of mold. They are absolutely horrific for human health, for pets, and most people have never been aware of it. Mold is something that is kind of the unseen killer or the unseen, um, effector of your health sometimes. We've had, ah, a lot of media exposure. For instance, Tim, I'm sure recalls. And Lance, you may also the black mold problem that we had years ago in Florida when we were buying drywall, I say we construction industry was buying drywall from China. And this drywall was just a huge breeding ground for this terrible black mold. It was actually really impactful to health. There were deaths. I mean, it was really terrible stuff. Nowadays, your air conditioning contractors want to do a little, indoor air quality service. What they want to do is just install, a little light in your ductwork or something like that, and charge you a lot of money for it. And they're really not doing a study on what the challenges are in your home and how to actually resolve
Ron Bender 00:10:22 So when you bring in a company like Mold Medics, with their expertise, they can find out exactly what's going on in that home and then impact the health of your family and make that air much better. is that correct, Tim?
Lance Graulich 00:10:38 Yeah. And to that, it's a uh, big focus obviously, is mold. I mean, it's right there in the name, no hiding that. that's definitely our core. But really we want to make sure that we're able to service as many customers, with as many different, environmental issues as we can. So we also offer air duct cleaning because that bundles very, very well with the mold remediation services that we offer. If you have a mold problem, it gets airborne, it's going through your ductwork, you want to address those at the same time. and other issues like radon, radon is a big one. Depending on where you are geographically, it can be a much worse issue, some areas than others. but it's the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US. And it's something you can't smell, you can't see, you can't taste. Most people have no idea it exists, let alone, how to find it, how to find if they have a problem, and how to address it. Love it. So, that's a detailed answer from both of you
Lance Graulich 00:11:28 So next, up, let's talk about who you're looking for and what the investment is for this type of franchise. Tim, you started the first corporate locations. When, what year was it? 2018. 2018, okay. And right now there's three corporate locations and you have at least one franchisee, correct? Yes. Perfect. So talk about that. Ron, who are you looking for? And describe that process a little bit with the individual and then roll right into the investment. Sure.
Ron Bender 00:12:04 We, have a couple different options as far as the optimal franchise candidate, as, you know, executive, model, where the franchise operator is managing the business but not operating it themselves. That's a big, big, aspect for us. Obviously, as you can see from Tim's story, he not only operates the business, but he's got other business interests and he's done a phenomenal job. So that's a great candidate for us. And that person is going to have some business acumen. They may not have operated a small business on their own, but they understand the finer aspects of business. And they also know when they need to pay attention to specific areas and perhaps even hire for the things that they do not perceive as strengths in themselves. And then, of course, the owner operator is a great option too. An owner operator is probably much more committed to that single business and they are a faster ramp up and they're also generally more profitable because they're not paying a management team. It's basically, uh, operated. Hopefully they're going to scale up. They're going to add technicians and trucks and continue to grow the business. We're not looking for just a man in a van, single business operator. If I'm not there, nothing happens, kind of a thing as far as the steps in the process, this is a really great process just to educate the client. Again, most of our consumers don't know anything about radon. They don't know that much about mold. They don't know really what indoor air quality can mean to their customers. So we're educating, we have an intro call which goes over the basics of the investment. Make sure that they have all the information that they need about what the business actually does and what would be required of an owner, either owner operator or executive. And then we'll do a business model webinar where we'll dive in deeper and we'll show them exactly what a day in the life of a mold medics operation is, what the marketing is like, how the technicians are trained and how they actually do that customer service. Again, that's a huge differentiator and then, we get them the franchise disclosure document. They'll have a review of that, make sure that they understand all the terms and all the expectations in that disclosure. And finally they'll do validation and they'll do a discovery event. Tim is very involved as the founder. He's now, the brand leader. So he didn't, ujump out of the business. He's still very much involved to make sure that we have
Ron Bender 00:14:30 the right. People that we're bringing in, and also that they have full information.
Lance Graulich 00:14:39 I always like when the owners are still involved and hold on to their corporate locations for at least a good amount of time while other franchisees ramp up. Because, just like going through the pandemic, you always want everybody at corporate to understand how you're feeling as the.
Ron Bender 00:15:00 Even there's more to it. In my view, one of the biggest benefits to having a founder involved is that the vision is still intact. Right. Tim's vision is what my company bought. They loved that vision. They loved the mission. It was a joint, agreeable philosophy on how to grow a business and what that would mean to consumers. And sometimes when you lose the founder, you lose their vision and somebody has to then step in and provide the new vision and it's not necessarily going to be as positive and as carrying as, I guess, the initial founder's vision. So I'll go over the investment and then, if you have follow up, otherwise we can have Tim step in too. the investment starts around 93,000. and depending on decisions that are made by the, new franchisee, it could go as high as about 165,000. So the big differentiation there would be, are they buying a vehicle or leasing it? Would they prefer to operate from a physical location with storage and an office? Or do they want to start it out of the home? And then how quickly they want to ramp up with marketing and with additional technicians and additional vehicles as well?
Lance Graulich 00:16:13 Love it. So, who are you really looking for? You laid out the different models, so really this can be literally for anybody. You have the owner operator model, you have the investor type model. For somebody that's semi absentee, but who ideally, you think it's probably a husband, wife. And you've been doing this a long time, Ron. You're going to probably end up with people from all walks of life. Everybody's concerned about air quality and health. Give me some thoughts on that.
Ron Bender 00:16:49 I, can tell you that we are getting a tremendous amount of very early interest from our existing franchisees in other brands, right. Folks who have a pest master and they understand how, people can be sensitive to pesticides. For example, they are very aware of what's going on with indoor air quality. Same thing with our guys in the, heating and air paramedics side, because they understand indoor air quality and they know that they really don't have all the tools. But even, other business owners and business operators, other people in home services, and to be really, blunt, we're getting a lot of interest from people who have had health issues for their families in their homes. And this really comes home to them because many of them were not able to find the services that they wanted or they were frustrated because the only service providers they could find really only wanted to deal with insurance companies and do a much bigger remodel type business than just help that consumer with their health issues. On indoor air.
Lance Graulich 00:17:49 Yeah, those are the guys that probably want to come in and start opening up walls when I'm sure that's not exactly the appropriate first step. So let's roll right into you get a franchisee and they go into training. What is the training? Without revealing the secret sauce here, I don't want you to have to kill me after telling me this, but I'd love to hear sort of the secret sauce of how you train technicians. And also, I would love to know, I'd love the audience to hear what is that first step when somebody calls and says, my whole family has allergies now can you just come in and check the air quality? Talk about how that process
Lance Graulich 00:18:29 Yeah, I'll take the latter question first. So when somebody calls in, they contact us about an issue. it really starts with compassion, trying to understand what it is that they're experiencing. Because very often people will think that they have a certain problem or they'll have a theory as to what's going on. and with a fairly quick conversation with one of our customer service representatives, we're able to determine much better, okay, do they have a humidity problem? Do they have a mold problem? Do they have just general allergens? Is it something that could be benefited by duct cleaning? and we can really start to hone in on what do we think the core issues are. And based on that, figure out what's going to be the best next step. Sometimes that's going to involve our team coming out and doing testing and, providing some environmental testing to better assess the situation. Sometimes it's a simple visual assessment to figure out, okay, they have a mold issue that our trained guys are able to pick up on that maybe they thought they had or they were slightly aware of, but couldn't hone in on where it was coming from. And, we can hone in on that and identify. All right, they've got some foundation water problems that we need to address and we need to come in and execute on XYZ remediation plan. Yeah. Love it. Talk about the training. So you have those technicians that come in. What does it really take to get certified by you and the team, to be able to do this? And does that sort of requirement or licensing vary state to state? So, absolutely, depending on the services that we're talking about, it can vary greatly state by state. some states have very strict, say, radon licensing. Others have basically none. And it goes that way with kind of, all the different services. So that's one of the things that we are working on is getting a very good handle on that from a state by state basis exactly what those requirements are so that we can, better advise prospects as they're coming into the funnel got you. But from there so there may be some specific third party licensing requirements, but a lot of it. And we actually spent all day yesterday working with, Thresholds. I'm not sure exactly what Summer's title is at this point, but interim VP. Yeah, interim vice president. She, handles all of the learning management systems for all of the brands. and really working on taking a lot of the content that we've created over the years, and modifying that to get that
Lance Graulich 00:20:49 into the existing learning management system that's there. And build out something that's going to benefit not just our new franchisees coming on for training, but also as they grow their new salespeople, their new technicians, to really enable them to scale a lot faster. And that's one of the things I'm really excited about this partnership with Threshold on is building out something like that would have been prohibitive for us for many years. But because of that partnership, we're able to get there much faster and be able to provide a lot better value to our franchisees. It's all about those systems, obviously. So typically when it comes to finding staff these days, who is the right person? How many employees do you need, generally speaking, to start out? what's the secret to finding good people these days? Yeah, so it's really going to come down to, as Ron mentioned, we've got a couple of different models depending on whether they're looking as more of an investor and to be a little bit more passive, or whether they're looking to be more of that owner operator, at least to start out. So that's going to somewhat determine what hires they'll need to make out of the gate but the biggest thing is the technician, the actual men and women out there doing, executing the services, performing the mold, remediation the air duct cleaning, et cetera. An amazing service, of course. Yes, absolutely. And one of the great things that I really love about this model is unlike a lot of other home services, we, need to have people that have great attitudes. We need to have people that are hardworking and have great energy, but they don't really have to have a ton of existing background knowledge. They don't have to be certified master plumber or anything along those lines. So we're able to get good people from other industries, train them on our processes and procedures, and get them operating in the field. I love it. That's fantastic. So, let's talk a little bit about the marketing. The advantage that you guys have is that everybody wants to breathe good, clean
Lance Graulich 00:22:49 How do you get that message out effectively as you're launching each new franchise brand? As we all know, people join franchise brands because doing it all on their own. Seems like it's too much, obviously, and it can be for the majority of the people out there, it's much easier to get into a successful franchise model. So how is the marketing handled, with you
Lance Graulich 00:23:14 Yeah, so that's a great question. So with us, obviously, for our mold remediation service, it is relatively reactionary. So a customer identifies or thinks that they have a problem, they want to go and find a solution for it. So with that, a big focus of ours has been on the digital side. So making sure that when people go onto Google, they're able to find us to identify that we are the best option, or the best solution that they have available and get in contact with us very quickly. And we do that through a couple of different ways. I mean, obviously, SEO, the search engine optimization is very huge. we have a plan whenever we onboard a new franchisee to build out a lot of local level pages specifically targeting their individual market. Be able to increase the SEO for those, as well as reputation management is a huge thing for us. If you look up our corporate territory, we're 500, and I think 15 or so five star Google reviews. wow, that's a lot of reviews. We've spent a lot of time really cultivating that and built systems around it to make sure that we're capturing those excellent customer experiences that we're delivering. Getting good testimonials, getting video testimonials, so that we can utilize, those to show other potential clients what the experience is like. Working with us, we have a, system that auto updates our references. So anytime we have a good customer experience and they'd like to be included on our reference list, we automatically get them added onto that. And I think at present, there's 360 something references that customers can contact fantastic. That we've worked with in the past. Love it.
Ron Bender 00:24:59 Lance, let me step in and tell you that our brand leaders in our different brands, they actually compete on customer experience and customer reviews. Actually, the founder of the Plumbing Paramedics and Heating and Air Paramedics reached out to the USA Insulation Brand president just a couple of days ago and said, so we're up to over 2005 star reviews, and we're at a 4.9 rating. How are you guys doing? And it's just back and forth. And then the USA guy says, well, we're not there yet, but how about this? And it's a blast. And Tim will fit right in on that, as you can tell from his great customer service attitude.
Lance Graulich 00:25:36 UhI absolutely love should mention, we should discuss a little bit. It's been mentioned thus far, threshold Brands now owns Mold Medics. Mold Medics is part of the Threshold Brands family. So why don't you give a little background on Threshold so people understand in.
Ron Bender 00:25:55 In just the last few years, there's been an increasing consolidation going on in franchising in general, but especially in the home services arena. So, Threshold Brands was formed, a little over two years ago. It started with Made pro and men in Kilts and patio patrol. Patio Patrol is an outdoor pest control company. And then through acquisition, we added USA, insulation, we added pestmaster, we added Sir Grout, we added, granite, garage floors and plumbing, paramedics heating and air paramedics, and now mold Medics. So we have ten different home services brands. There are many, many other areas or arenas in home services that we do not yet have. So, certainly, we're looking to continue to add on brands. But the huge benefit, as Tim, already brought up, is that when you have three or five or ten, or who knows how many next year, 15, brands altogether, we can afford to provide many more services for our franchisees. And there's a lot of marketing that can be done between brands. For example, if in Tim's area, he's got the mold Medics, well, there also might be a Made Pro, and when the consumer says to the cleaner in their home, they're pro, hey, we've got an issue. this could this be mold? You think that might be mold? Oh, my gosh. We've got a sister company that can absolutely tell, and they can help you if that is the problem. And you can cross pollinate, as it were.
Lance Graulich 00:27:27 Love it.
Ron Bender 00:27:28 And the shared services that we can provide with marketing, with, recruiting. Oh, my gosh. One thing Tim didn't mention is we have a recruiting specialist, a people development person in our arena, who works with all of our franchisees to help them find great people and build a culture to retain those great. You know, if you were to talk to most of the candidates out there who are thinking about opening a business, their three questions are, how much money can I make? How am I going to get my customers? And how am I going to get my staff? And we've got those answers for them to help them understand it.
Lance Graulich 00:28:02 I love it. Yeah. And within that money question, it's always, how fast am I going to when am I going to start making a lot of money? everybody wants it right away. Let's roll into a money question right now. Now that I mentioned that, people listening are going to be like, how much money can I make? So you have a history with your three corporate locations? What's the history with the three corporate locations? Yeah. So we're seeing consistent growth, and, as of last year, we finished up just a hair under 1.5 million across our three corporate locations. 1.5 million. And this isn't like a restaurant, which that would be fantastic at a small restaurant, but then you have a whole bunch of staff, a whole bunch of overhead. I would imagine there's a lot of money that falls. To the bottom line there. Is that fair to say? Ron, I'll let you take that one.
Ron Bender 00:29:00 You can see that Tim is just smiling and doesn't want to give any details. But yeah, this is a relatively low overhead business. We've got some equipment that's in the initial investment, there are indeed a few, consumables, but the reality is it's labor. that's the highest, cost, area. So this is a very high margin, low overhead opportunity. And of course, the, franchisee can give more detail. We don't have it in the new FDD yet, although, as Tim said, that FDD is still in process. We hope to have it finalized in about nine days. So hopefully, we'll get more detail in that.
Lance Graulich 00:29:40 So by the time this episode airs, the new franchise disclosure document will be out. No worries there. And for those listening, the franchise disclosure document has 23 items in it. Item 19 is the earnings claim. All franchise brands, most franchise brands are going to put something in that Item 19 section. Typically, it's going to be sales and maybe something on margins and threshold brands, while they're performing very well. See that Item 19 section in the new FDD. As you are exploring this brand and you'll have some information that you'd like, and also as the gentleman, both Tim and Ron mentioned earlier, with validation, you'll have an opportunity to speak to existing franchisees throughout the process to confirm their experience, which is always a big deal. Let me ask you gentlemen switching gears, you both have spent a lot of time in the world of franchising. So as people are listening, they're unsure, is the franchise right for me? how do I know? What is your advice to people listening on how to select the right franchise for them? Ron, you've got a bit more experience on that, so I'll let you tackle it.
Ron Bender 00:30:54 You know, the guy with the white hair, they always think he's wiser. It's not necessarily true, just older. That's a wonderful question, Lance. I am fortunate enough to get to address that type of question. A, um, am, I think. You know, I'm very active with the IFA Foundation, which is the nonprofit side of the franchise association. And when we discuss this know, with general people who are interested in a franchise, we can tell you that franchising is a great system to help you streamline your getting into and becoming successful in business. It is absolutely not the right vehicle for everyone. And, the founder of Wireless Own told me this is going to make Tim smile. The founder of Wireless Own told me when I was first with Wirelessone that if people want to go swimming, they have two choices. They can either join a swim club or a country club. And they can pay less because they're sharing all the costs. And they can enjoy more people, whatever, or they can build their own pool and, really focus on just doing what they want to do. And that's exactly the way to look at Franchising. If you feel that you have to make every single decision, you have to have full control. Don't buy any franchise because you're not going to be a good fit. But if you can comfortably say, I want to learn from others. I want to have a system that I can just step into easier, cheaper, save blood, save sweat, save tears, save money. Franchising, can be great for you. but again, we want people who are going to learn the system and use it and then help us improve it. We are not looking for somebody who just wants to, okay, do a one, do step two, do step three, don't talk, don't think. That's not what we're looking for. But we want people to follow this system the way we teach it at first, and then help us improve it.
Lance Graulich 00:32:45 Love it. Absolutely love it. Tim yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more with that. I would generally classify the control freaks, which I've been there at times. I've been a good franchisee and I've been a, not so great franchisee in the past. There's a little bit of the control freak in me that doesn't always work well as a franchisee, but I try to keep that in check. But the other thing I would say, where a lot of benefit, and I don't think people give this enough credit when you're an entrepreneur or solopreneur, you're out on your own, you're doing your own thing, starting your own business. Number one, you've got everything in that business to worry about. You have the marketing, you have the HR, you have the finance, you've got the sales, you've got the operations. All of it, falls under you. You're solely responsible for doing all of that. Whereas with the franchise, there's a lot of that that's already provided, generally doing a better job than what you'd be able to come up with on your own. And the other big component is you get to be part of a community. So that feeling of isolation, you're on an island by yourself. A lot of people are used to coming from corporate America where they've got bosses, but they've got peers as well. They've got other people that they can talk to that are going through the same thing that they are. And when you're a solopreneur and you're doing things on your own, you don't always have that. It can feel very isolating. And when you're part of a franchise model, on the other hand, you can go and you can see, hey, Johnny over here is running an absolutely amazing franchise. He's killing it in all of these different KPIs. Let me go have a conversation with him and find out what he's doing. And how can I pull that into my business. And in every model that I've been a part of. People are always very willing to contribute, very willing to help out when people need additional help. I love that answer. And the whole collaboration piece is something that people forget about because when you put a lot of great minds together, people that are already performing at a high level, you're going to help everybody else get to the next level. You have best practices in place. And that's obviously what I have always loved about Franchising being a franchisee myself. So I love that answer. So gentlemen, you have given me some amazing and giving the audience some amazing, things to think about and great information. final thoughts for the
Lance Graulich 00:35:11 day, final words of wisdom. Ron, why don't you go first?
Ron Bender 00:35:19 Well, I am, a huge business model. I think hopefully, that comes across pretty clear. Our m expectation is that we are going to bring people into our different brands who have positive attitudes. They are out to improve their lives. They're out to pursue their dreams and maybe build a legacy for their family. We are all about bringing in those positive people and helping them to achieve, their dreams. This Mold Medics brand is just our newest vehicle in doing that. Tim and, the rest of the Mold Medics team are wonderful people. And I don't just say that because Tim is listening, but, really they are. They're very, very strong. They're dedicated to the success of their franchisees and the health of their customers. And what more could you ask? This is a great opportunity and, we'd love to speak with your listeners, Lance, and help them understand this business and the opportunities that it might bring them.
Lance Graulich 00:36:15 Awesome. Fantastic. Tim, you get the final word, final thoughts from you. So what I'd say is, Franchising is really personal for me. I mean, I mentioned earlier I'm a second generation franchisee. my father grew up in the projects with a single mother and, five siblings. Didn't have two nickels to rub together. And through Franchising over the years, he was able to dramatically change the life that he, was able to provide for my brother and I, and thus the life that I'm able to provide for my three, soon to be four kids. So it's really huge for me to see what kind of a change and what kind of an impact that can have on not just one family, but several families. And I'm really passionate about being able to offer this as a franchise opportunity so we can, uh, give that opportunity to more people out there. That's fantastic. And that's a perfect, spot to end it. Tim and Ron Mold Medics, thank you so much, gentlemen, for sharing your story. Thank you, Lance.
Ron Bender 00:37:17 Have a terrific day.
Lance Graulich 00:37:18 You too. Guys. Thank you very much for listening today. Please, like, follow and subscribe. This is Lance Graulic. Until next time.