Doing good by your neighbors and making good money to put food on the table doesn’t have to be 2 different destinations. In the absence of needing to fight for basic survival needs, most of us prioritize our passions and the needs of others. It’s only when the bills come knocking that people get conflicted and make decisions that put their own interests first, even if it means stepping on others. Let’s face it, we all need to make a living. And a lot of us forgo dreams like starting our own businesses and helping others for fear of being unable to provide for ourselves and our own families – the very reason most of us stick to 9-5s that fill our stomachs but eat away our souls. But times are changing! More and more businesses and entrepreneurs are seeing that providing for oneself and helping others are actually converging paths that lead to success. Hear more about the business model that’s built around this ideology straight from John North and Shane Lynch! John is a leader in Franchise Development managing development for large brands like Xponential Fitness, as well as Storm Guard Roofing & Construction and other small to mid-sized brands. Shane Lynch has served as President of Storm Guard Franchise Systems, LLC, since January 2015. Prior to joining Storm Guard, Shane was an attorney in private practice, and before that, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable D. Michael Lynn, a federal bankruptcy judge. Together, John and Shane discuss what it means to be a part of Storm Guard! And what that means is a chance to own a lucrative and successful business that focuses on the home exterior restoration needs of homeowners who have suffered losses due to weather and calamities. By partnering with insurance agencies and local craftsmen, Storm Guard is able to provide high-quality services without the bank-breaking prices. It’s not just about restoring roofs, windows and gutters. It’s about restoring and upgrading homeowners' quality of life! 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/
Doing good by your neighbors and making good money to put food on the table doesn’t have to be 2 different destinations.
In the absence of needing to fight for basic survival needs, most of us prioritize our passions and the needs of others. It’s only when the bills come knocking that people get conflicted and make decisions that put their own interests first, even if it means stepping on others.
Let’s face it, we all need to make a living. And a lot of us forgo dreams like starting our own businesses and helping others for fear of being unable to provide for ourselves and our own families – the very reason most of us stick to 9-5s that fill our stomachs but eat away our souls.
But times are changing! More and more businesses and entrepreneurs are seeing that providing for oneself and helping others are actually converging paths that lead to success.
Hear more about the business model that’s built around this ideology straight from John North and Shane Lynch!
John is a leader in Franchise Development managing development for large brands like Xponential Fitness, as well as Storm Guard Roofing & Construction and other small to mid-sized brands.
Shane Lynch has served as President of Storm Guard Franchise Systems, LLC, since January 2015. Prior to joining Storm Guard, Shane was an attorney in private practice, and before that, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable D. Michael Lynn, a federal bankruptcy judge.
Together, John and Shane discuss what it means to be a part of Storm Guard!
And what that means is a chance to own a lucrative and successful business that focuses on the home exterior restoration needs of homeowners who have suffered losses due to weather and calamities. By partnering with insurance agencies and local craftsmen, Storm Guard is able to provide high-quality services without the bank-breaking prices.
It’s not just about restoring roofs, windows and gutters. It’s about restoring and upgrading homeowners' quality of life!
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] well, hello everyone. And welcome back to ion franchising. Today. We have two as always two amazing guests. Uh, the first, uh, well, the first they're there together. So the first gentlemen leader in franchise development, he is with companies like exponential fitness brands that I represent big company, uh, has done that quite a while. And today he is the director of franchise development for storm guard. An amazing, amazing franchise just recently did a deal with storm guard and the other gentlemen, more significant, I guess you can say, I'm just kidding. Uh, this gentleman, this gentleman is an attorney. He's been an attorney private practice since 2011, I believe. And he has been the president of storm guard since. Let's see, 2015 So mainley[00:02:00]
[00:02:00] SHANE: your, your guests off though. Um, thank you for that intro, but you led with, he's an attorney cause now everybody's going to click off.
[00:02:09] LANCE: No, they're not. And so Shane and John, welcome to ion franchising. Thank you so much for being here. Um, the first, first order of business. So John Shane, let's start with you. So give us a little bit about your backstory, Shane. You know, you were an attorney, but what led you to be an attorney and then how'd you end up in storm guard?
[00:02:29] SHANE: So I was that little kid growing up. That didn't want to be a fireman or an Astranoaut for whatever reason, as long as I could remember, I wanted to be a lawyer and then I became a lawyer and I realized that that job really sucks, you know? So I. I graduated from law school in 2008. And I clerked for a federal bankruptcy judge in Fort worth, Texas for a couple of years. And during my clerkship, we [00:03:00] had the Texas Rangers go through bankruptcy. That was really fun. So we had Nolan Ryan and mark Cuban in the courtroom. We had. And auction that went til three o'clock in the morning. I got to see attorneys screaming at each other in the hall, you know, just the typical court case. Right. So after I left my clerkship, I, uh, went and practiced bankruptcy, uh, representing companies, large companies in bankruptcy. Fighting those evil banks, um, and a boutique firm in Dallas. And I would wake up every morning knowing that I was going to get in a fight that day. And I knew that the fight that I was gonna get in was gonna be incredibly stupid I knew the fight that I was gonna be in was with going to be with another lawyer who made the same argument that I was making. Two months ago, but now they would pretend like they didn't understand the art. So I called my dad and I was like, Hey, I got to give up. said I can't practice anymore. This is terrible. And we were looking [00:04:00] at, um, my dad and his long-term partner, Bobby Cox were looking at buying storm guard um, and this was in 2014 and they were getting closer and he called me one day and he said, Hey, you want to run the storm guard and I was like yeah, let's do that. So bought storm guard, my family and Bobby bought it in June of 14. And then I came on as president and storm guard, uh, in January of 15. And when we bought it, we had, I think it was three or four franchisees and we had to take almost all of them. Um, earlier they'd done silly things like selling an entire state to one person. Um, there was no training and that sort of thing. So really when we bought it, we had one real franchise. Uh,
[00:04:48] LANCE: and you have a lot of work to do in 2015,
[00:04:51] SHANE: we did, we did. And we were losing money like crazy and over, over the last, uh, almost seven years now, you know, we turned it around, we built it up to 35 [00:05:00] franchisees. The vast majority of whom were profitable. You've always got your one or two low performers, but the vast majority of them are profitable. were profitable. We're on a great course. We've got John who's leading us in a great direction to help us grow to the system and things are good now
[00:05:14] LANCE: yeah. I love hearing all the details. I knew some of that, but I certainly didn't know all of that. So this is, this is going to be awesome. So I appreciate that. So, uh, John gimme, gimme some of your, uh, backstory and how you got to storm guard.
[00:05:28] JOHN: So I spent over 17 years in Balta unit leadership, so, you know, 550 million. Budgets P and L's things like that. And no matter how hard I worked and I always did. And no matter how well I did, I always made kind of in the same range, which is a comfortable living, but, you know, I always do my big effort person. I want to work really hard and I want to reap the reward. So then I left that started some businesses from scratch. You know, I liked autonomy, but sometimes so much autonomy and what you're going to carry, where are you going to carry [00:06:00] it? How are you going to source it? How are you going to sell it? You can really slow things down. So I really fell in love with the franchise model because again, you know, proven business model support, you know, if you get someone who's a good executer that can do really well and, uh, got into franchise development and I've always loved storm guard and what I really like about storm guard? It's very, values-based. You know, that's a industry that a lot of people want to get into, but, you know, they're just jumping in were you know, storm guards been around for about 19 years. Current leadership was Shane's have been around for a long time and, you know, really values based the right support, really taking care of the franchisees. And they really seen as the storm guard family. So as soon as I got the opportunity to do a development for storm. I jumped on.
[00:06:42] LANCE: I love it. I love it. So let's talk a little bit about what you just touched on John. When it comes to franchising and Shane I'm sure you had your opinions. Give me the good stuff. I mean, why franchising? What excites you guys about franchising? Obviously, John, if you were in business by yourself, [00:07:00] Before, you certainly know what the advantages are, franchising. So let's, let's hit on that a little bit. Why franchising, what gets excited about that?
[00:07:07] JOHN: So again, I'm, I'm a big fan of that proven business model. I mean, you're a pathway to profitability or significant profitability with business ownership can take a long time. You look at the success rates of, you know, this businesses started from scratch versus franchising. It's nowhere near it. And that's why, you know, and as one evaluates franchising, I always look at, you know, look at the model. You know, is it a model that a brand that you believe and look at the model and do your see yourself as being able to be, you know, one of those successful franchisees, what's their attributes? How did they do. You see yourself aligning it and then, you know, is it a brand you believe in and likes like storm guard? Is it a leadership team that you really believe in? Do you believe that you can be part of that family? So what I like about it is if you have all those things and all those lines things line up, it can be a really nice opportunity for anyone who's looking to get into business for [00:08:00] themselves.
[00:08:00] LANCE: Yeah. Good Shane.
[00:08:02] SHANE: Yeah. So everything that John said yes, but he said one thing. That is the key. I think of why franchising. He said family. And so when I talk about our franchisees and their employees, I talk about the small garden family, every email that I send says, dear storm guard fan, when we have conference, um, or in our national conference, it's it's like family, it's like a family reunion. But, you know, what does family mean for franchisee means that you've got a bunch of other owners who are trying to drive the brand the same direction that you are. They want to see the brand grow. They want to see the brand have values. The customers approved. But it also means that you have people that will support you. So I don't have all the answers and neither do any of my employees, all of our, you know, the, the people that I have that work with us that support our [00:09:00] franchisees. We don't have all of the answers, 35 franchisees who have tried. Everything. And so when we have a franchisee that comes up with a great idea and I can give you an example, you know, in today's world, online marketing is huge and it's a really difficult thing to do, especially for home service businesses. But we had one franchisee in Nashville who started didn't spend any money. He just started engaging regularly. On one of the social plat, just one. Um, he would ask that all of his reviews. He would regularly watch it to see if somebody was asking for a roofer in their neighborhood. And he would ask his former customers to promote it. That's not something we did. That's something that he did, but he shared it with his family because he wanted to see everybody else successful. So we designed a program, we took his idea, we designed a program around it, and now our other franchisees are implementing that. [00:10:00] And so I franchising because you don't have to do it all. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room because you have a bunch of other smart people that have the same goals as you, and that want to see you successful.
[00:10:12] LANCE: I love it. The old, the old expression in business for yourself, but not by yourself. And the best practices are, are just, are just key. McDonald's everybody seems to know McDonald's and the last I checked, the filet of fish and the big Mac were invented by or suggested and proposed by franchisees and corporate adopted those. Worked through the recipes and boom it's on the menu years ago. So, uh, let's do this also a Shane why don't you give us the, uh, elevator pitch? What is storm guard
[00:10:46] SHANE: okay. So storm guard is exterior restoration. What does that mean? That means that we do anything on the exterior of a home or business is going to be real fast. Cause I've memorized it [00:11:00] Roofing, windows, siding, gutters, emergency Tarping painting restoration.. So slower roofing windows, siding, gutters, emergency tarping, painting restoration. What is that piece? That means that most of our work is to help homeowners and businesses. Restore their property after it has been damaged due to some weather events. So most frequent for roofing, isn't going to be hail, but you can absolutely see damage from, you know, wind storms, uh, from hurricanes, one of our franchisees a year or two ago. A killer year because he had a hurricane come through his town that wasn't, you know, one of those like terrible destroy everything, hurricanes, but it was bad enough that you know exactly. So, you know, people think I used to be a bankruptcy lawyer and people are like, oh, you're rooting for bad economy. No I'm rooting for economy just bad enough today. I'm not Rooting for bad weather. I'm rooting for weather just bad enough, you know? Um, so that's, that's what we [00:12:00] do. We help people. That have experienced a loss to their property, bring their property back to where it was before the weather event or, or whatever caused it.
[00:12:10] LANCE: Good explanation your, your, uh, you know it well, and what I love about your business model is that people aren't necessarily coming out of pocket to pay you the most. It's your business. Yeah. Let's talk about that part of the model.
[00:12:23] SHANE: The vast majority of the work that we do is insurance pay probably 90% is insurance pay. You. You've got home insurance, you own a home. You're paying these premiums every year. What are you paying these premiums? You're paying these premiums in case your house burns down, but you're also paying the premiums in case you experienced some sort of damage to your home. And that damage could be a lot of things. It could be, you know, you have a pipe burst, uh, due to cold weather and it just ruined your wood floors and you got to replace that your insurance can pay for that. Your insurance is also going to pay to replace your roof. If it's damaged, why do they pay to replace your [00:13:00] roof? If you don't replace your roof, when it's done. It's going to start leaking and it was going to cost a lot more nimble. So most of our customers, all they have to pay. Is there a deductible, that's it? Everything else is paid for by insurance.
[00:13:16] LANCE: Yeah. Love it. Great business model. And, and, you know, I know in the franchise world, there are other restoration brands, but you have that unique specialty. I don't know that there's anybody else that just focuses on exterior restoration like you guys do.
[00:13:33] SHANE: Yeah. There are a ton of brands. In the home services space that do restoration think like Servpro, a huge one, but they don't specialize on the exterior stuff. You know, ServPro is that example that I gave the water. Right. And so there are some newer brands that are doing roofing. But they're really not focused on what we are, which is the restoration piece, because there are a lot of [00:14:00] reasons that people will replace roofs you know, sometimes your roof is just old and you gotta replace it and you're going to have to pay for that out upon, you know, and, and sometimes you buy a house and it just doesn't look good and you want to get a new color and do some upgrades. And so you'll replace it for that reason. Those other brands focusing on those types of costs. We focus on the customers that we believe we can help the most. And those are the customers that have experienced the loss and need our guidance to get them through this difficult time.
[00:14:28] LANCE: Wonderful. So obviously a lot of our listeners are interested in franchise opportunities. Everybody's at a different level. There are people that are listening that are serial entrepreneurs and maybe they've owned a franchise. And there are plenty of people that know nothing about franchises. Maybe they're. Currently in a corporate job, they don't love so much and they're interested in, well, what's my next move. Um, a lot of people think franchises are expensive and the reality is, well, when you look at McDonald's, it's a big investment, but there are tons of franchises that are under 200,000 [00:15:00] just like storm guard. So the question is why storm guard and who. You know, who who's a good fit for a, to be a franchisee of storm guard. Do you need construction experience?
[00:15:11] SHANE: Let me address the last question first and then I'll throw it over to John. Not one of our franchisees comes from roofing general construction or any construction related thing. The closest that we have is we have a franchisee who was a salesperson for, um, Snapple that's as close as we have, uh, to, to construction trains. So you don't have to have experience in construction at all, because believe it or not, the easiest part of the business is building the roof we will teach you all that you need to know about that. John, do you want to talk about the other points?
[00:15:57] JOHN: Yeah. If you,a few on there. So, [00:16:00] you know, why storm guard one, you know, roofing $20 billion industry storm guard is the largest residential roofing franchise in the country. We do retail, as Shane mentioned, mainly 90% of what we do is insurance-based a few things that I love about storm guard is we're not just looking to go into every market. And a lot of those franchises will sell. Anywhere in any market? Well, we look at a few things. One, we look at insurance reimbursement rates, and we want to make sure that that makes sense. We don't want our franchisees not to build, to use good labor and good quality materials. We also look at storm, so we sell a territory to territory that we think could be successful. Another couple of things about storm guard. The trading program is absolutely world-class. So our franchisees are taken care of from a franchise business consultant. When they start with storm guard all the way to the end, making sure that they're fully trained up to speed. Uh, part of the development process will include talking to franchisees and you'll hear about the family, your he'll hear about the [00:17:00] culture, but, you know, that's really important. And most of the people that are looking at joining a franchise, they want a proven business model. They want support, but some franchise owners are very rigid. You know, it's always my way or the highway and the storm guard. It's the family, it's innovation. It's working together. I have two young sons and I wish they always listened to me, but they rarely. Because it's a family and a families work together, uh, item 19, which all candidates will get a chance to see as part of the process as the top. Uh, basically the average, the top 10%, the bottom 10% median. So franchisees can definitely make money. Item seven will give the range that you were kind of right in that middle there, Lance with very detailed item seven, which lays out everything, including working capital. They get the franchisee up to speed. And then the last thing that I really, really like about storm guard, which you don't see very often. When we sell territories, our [00:18:00] territories are on average, a hundred thousand single family households, homeowner occupied. So the territories are really large. A lot of franchises will sell three territories. What was storm guard? When we sell a territory, we want the territory to be large enough to do business. And so really franchisees only need one territory with storm guard because they're large enough, you know, and you don't need to buy three licenses.
[00:18:24] LANCE: You, you guys are awesome. This is a ton of information and I'm sure people are getting really excited and, you know, full disclosure, not that I need to disclose this, but being in the, in the franchise world for almost 25 years. Plus, uh, I had a couple that came to me recently, as you guys probably remember, um, that became franchisees and, uh, they were looking at other things, uh, the restaurant industry, which is quite popular and when they saw your numbers and they saw an item 19, one of the individuals is, uh, is a CPA and she, you know, an accountant and when they saw the numbers. They were like [00:19:00] Whoa, this is, this is a business we can, we can wrap our heads around for our nice young family here and they have great skills. So let's kind of go into that piece next, who is right for storm guard. If you looked at the top 10% of franchisees, I'm going to guess they're from all walks of life. But, and we know most of them are, all of them are not contractors, but, but what are those traits that you find? So. Perfect for a storm guard, franchisee, uh, to be successful.
[00:19:32] SHANE: John you wanna start?
[00:19:33] JOHN: I think. Yeah, well, I think to start relationship building skills are going to be really important, you know, reaching out to local community. A lot of our successful franchisees will partner with, you know, insurance people, solar plumber, and really just having that going on. And if there's any type of exterior restoration needed we're top of mind. I think successful franchisees in general, they have to have perseverance. They have to have determination and grit, you [00:20:00] know, not everything is going to be smooth, sailing in business. There will be challenges. And for those that can really persevere and dig down and get going, that can make it happen. You know? Good communicators responsiveness and, you know, people that treat others well because when people treat others, well, their employees tend to stick around. They want to work a little bit harder. So I think those tend to be skills that are good for franchising. But when you look at the successful storm, dirt owners, they really display.
[00:20:30] LANCE: Yeah. Good Shane.
[00:20:32] SHANE: Um, I'm gonna, I'm going to be real,
[00:20:35] LANCE: please do.
[00:20:36] SHANE: Alright. Number one, from my perspective is tinacity um, my dad likes to call it a cannot fail attitude. Why
[00:20:45] LANCE: sticktuitiveness
[00:20:47] SHANE: exactly, exactly why. All right. It doesn't matter where you buy what territory you're in. You're going to have competition. And in most states, roofing is. Completely unregulated. [00:21:00] There are a couple of states where there are licensing requirements and that sort of thing, but in many, many, many states completely unregulated. If you want to be a roofer, you say I'm a roofer and you're a roofer. And so you're going to have to fight, not fight, but you're going to have competition that they don't necessarily do things the right way. So legally you have to collect the deductible. It's part of the contract between the insured and the insurance company. They've got to pay their deduct. Well, there are plenty of companies. They'll just say, yeah, we'll waive your deduct. We'll do that. Which means that we lose certain customers that just don't want to do things the right way. So you've gotta be tenacious. You gotta have that sticktuitiveness to go over those people that don't want to do things the right way. And this is one that one of the qualities that my VP of a franchise ops and I have talked a lot about recently, he can't be too proud. What does that mean? All right. We're in roofing, right? Like if, if you derive, if you're [00:22:00] proud to say I'm a lawyer, you know, I'm a lawyer and tell people I'm a lawyer, they'll be really impressed or I'm a doctor. And that's where you get your pride. Are you going to get in your own way by telling people. I'm a roofer or will you just not tell them, you got to tell him you got to get your customers, so you have to understand why are you getting into this? This is true of every franchise. Are you getting into it to say I'm a business man or are you getting into it because you want to do better for your family. And so you really have to ask yourself that hardcore. What makes me proud. Am I proud to build a sustainable business? Or am I proud to tell people that I'm a business owner or that I'm a lawyer or that I'm an executive? And if it's the latter, what we do might not be the best thing for you. In fact, if it's the latter franchising might not be the best thing for you.
[00:22:51] LANCE: Well, you just set that up perfectly because my next question was going to be who isn't right for a franchise. And how quickly can you tell [00:23:00] someone you're speaking with is not right. For storm guard or any franchise for that
[00:23:06] SHANE: . Man that's, if I had the answer to that question, I would have never had somebody fail, you know? And unfortunately like every franchisor we've had people fail, but I think that there are a couple of things that when we're talking to people we can hear in them. The first one is if there's a little roadblock in the process, because there's going to be a rock block and process. Do they just get super frustrated and do they want to quit? Because if they want to quit the process before you buy it, they're not going to be able to run when they run into some roadblocks running the business. The next thing is for me, one of, part of our process, whenever we can, I like to take people to lunch. I like to get them out of office and just talk about whatever. Do I get from them that we shared about I'm very value driven companies, better driven. If you look at franchise business review, we won an [00:24:00] award or our values, and we are our average score for the values. Questions was over 95. So I've got to know that when I say we do things the right way, we don't waive deductibles. We do what the insurance is paying us to do. We don't reuse things. If we're being paid to use new. Are you a candidate can do the same thing. And are you going to do it because it's the right thing to do,
[00:24:25] LANCE: you know, way before John, before you jumped in. I got to interject because this perfect. What you just laid up here. I, it was either Steve jobs or Warren buffet. It might've been Steve jobs. He used to take executives to love. To learn more about them and was curious how they would treat this the server in a nice nicer restaurant. And, uh, and I don't think there can be anything more true in, in franchising when you selecting franchisees because if they're treating a server, well, they're going to treat their own employees well, more than likely. [00:25:00] That's all. Great, great, great stuff. The other thing that I constantly hear from franchise owners is that believe it or not, some people talk such a good game when they come through the franchise process, but sometimes, I mean, I can speak for myself. I was head of operations for, uh, a big burger brand. 1998 or so in California. And when we were selecting franchisees, the minute they especially celebrities, uh, we work with a lot of athletes, professional athletes, and they would talk about, well, when I retire and I'm going to play golf, I'll have my friend run the business or whatever it might be. Those are all red flags, because at the end of the day, we all know that while some brands can be operated on an absentee or semi absentee basis, the beginning is the most crucial. I mean, you have to get traction, you have to get off the ground. Right? So the other, the other key to success [00:26:00] is are you going to work hard? Is solid on this business all the time.
[00:26:06] SHANE: Absolutely. I think some people have a misimpression of franchise. I think that they pay this branch. Th th their, their belief is they pay this franchise fee five, six figures, and they're given business in a box it doesn't matter how developed a franchisor it's, it doesn't matter if they have 500 units they're not giving you a business in a box. They will not do the work for you. They will give you franchising is more akin than business in a box. To a really, really good recipe. We tell you that you need to add four ads and, you know, put in two cups of flour and bake at three 50 for 15 minutes. And there's some wiggle room on some of that stuff because it's ultimately your dish. You get to season it how you want. . Don't have to cook it.
[00:26:59] LANCE: I love it, [00:27:00] John, what were you gonna add to this
[00:27:02] JOHN: yeah, I think you're right on about that. You know, some people they want to get in the business, they don't want to work and you know, that's someone right away, like that might not be a really good fit. You know, the other one is successful. Franchisees do follow the model at least, you know, most of the time. And when you have a pretty straightforward development model and education process, if you get someone right away that, you know, they don't want to hear it, they want to do it their way. You know, it's not gonna, they're not going follow that bottle. They're generally not going to be successful. So every time where maybe somebody gets through that show and based on that, they tend to turn out to be a problem down the road. So back to, they don't need the home improvement experience. They don't need to be the smartest person in the, in the room. The most business experience it's, you know, that I'm willing to learn. You know, I don't know what, I don't know. I want to learn more. I want to find the model. I want to gather the information and make an informed buying decision. And for those people that don't want to do it that way, they're not going to be a good fit for [00:28:00] storm guard or probably any other franchise. Right?
[00:28:02] SHANE: Yeah. What John just said about following them on. Is key for every franchise. Um, you know, I take the position that when we get a candidate, I need them to be the right fit for me. Uh, just as I'm the right fit for them. And so I understand that not every franchisee is my franchisee, but this advice is completely generic across all franchise brands that somebody might be looking, you're buying a franchise because you don't know how to do, you're buying a franchise because even if you've been in the restaurant industry, let's say that you own a McDonald's franchise and now you're buying a pizza franchise. Okay. So you know how to make food. You don't know how to do it. The pizza hut. Right. And so why do you think that you can come in on day one and say, we need to change the dose? Wait, what? Same thing for [00:29:00] every franchise, even if, you know, let's say that, you know, you've been in the insurance industry and you were an insurance agent and you know how all that works. And so you got some ideas on how it should work within storm guard. Well, slow down. We've done this 35 times successfully. Plus a couple of times that, you know, everybody learned on, listen to us, listen to us, give me six months, give me six months to do it. The way that my team says to do it. And in that six months, they're going to give you a couple of things where they say, here's our suggested, but you need to do it your way because ultimately you're the one that has to sell it. A perfect example is how do you compensate your employees? Here's our suggested, but you've gotta be able to sell it. Other than that stuff. We've got some stuff that's just, this is the way to do it. Know it. So try that.
[00:29:51] LANCE: Yep. Trust the process, John, when it comes to the franchise selection process, why don't you just run us through that? Including [00:30:00] discovery day validation, select final selection. The whole thing
[00:30:04] JOHN: What we do as we do a kind of initial call, we talk about, you know, the candidate got to what their background, what they're looking for. Kinda talk about the educational process? What that's gonna look like? Then what we do is we do a storm guard welcome call where we go through, talk about kind of the history of store are the different support items, technology. We talk about item seven, we talk about item 19 in the franchise disclosure document. Then the Fran, the candidate receives the franchise disclosure document, which some people have seen them before. Some people haven't for those who haven't, you know, you always want to know. You know, explain what they're going to be looking at, because if you haven't seen one before, they can be, seem a little bit daunting.
[00:30:46] LANCE: So that's what I help with. I help with that.
[00:30:49] JOHN: That's why they want it. That's why you want to go to Lance's because he's going to help you with it because if not properly prepared, it will blow someone's head up. So then what I do is I do a franchise disclosure document and [00:31:00] review call where I go over the key items. With the perspective, candidates answer any questions they have on the franchise disclosure document, any questions they have on storm guard. And then I look for kind of validation, like who would be a good connection for them because a lot of times, people in the same city, state region, obviously you want to talk to storm guard franchisees in that area. And that's a no brainer. The other thing would be background, as shane mentioned, you know, the closest is probably a Snapple salesperson, but. You know, restaurant industry, we have X restaurant executives. We have executives from, you know, medical device and things like that. So we really try to look for like-minded individuals that connect them with invalidation and get a chance to speak to multiple storm guard franchisees and, you know, basic things like do they like being a franchisee all the way into kind of those financial pieces so they can really ask their questions, build out their own model. And ultimately decide are they [00:32:00] interested in, in storm guard? We have an application process that prospective applicants go through, Shane reviews, all those, and then we have a meet the team day and then our meet the team day. We're doing both virtual and live currently on that could change down the road, but, you know, depending on. Where people are at and holiday feel boy, a chance for them to meet the key storm guard team members for the storm guard team members to meet them. It's not a signing event. So it's a chance for everyone to come together and really talk about the next steps. And is it a good fit? And then I'll have a follow-up call with Shane and the storm guard team. I'll have another followup call like a day or two later with the candidate. We kind of get the feedback on the meet the team day. What do they like? What do they like to see? Definitely. Then we do the awarding decision. And if it is a thumbs up from both sides, then we talk about franchise fees, franchise agreements, and usually about seven to 14 days after the event, the onboarding [00:33:00] begins.
[00:33:00] LANCE: That takes place. What's the average time period from start to finish
[00:33:04] JOHN: 30 to 60 days. So we'll say the average is probably right in the middle, around that 45. You know, one thing that's nice about it is, you know, we get through good information quickly, but we don't have. Five calls before you'd get the franchise disclosure document. So it's designed to, you know, give people the education that they need, get them the information that they need so they can make an informed buying decision. So 30 to 60 we'll say, but we'll put the average right there in the middle.
[00:33:29] LANCE: Perfect. Shane, I'm sure you have something to add to that. I was going to mention your family comment from earlier because when it comes to validation, I know your validation's tremendous because it feels like a family. And for those listeners that don't even know what validation is. It's just another piece of the process and all great franchise brands where you have an opportunity to speak to existing franchisees. Uh, some could be in your area that does make sense. Most of the time, some, maybe not, some could be [00:34:00] a long-term franchisee that you get to ask whatever you want. And when you hear feedback from peers and people that were in your exact position, in some cases, years before you, they were nervous, they had the same questions you did. They weren't sure if this is the franchise for them. Although usually when you get to validation, you start to become pretty sure. So, uh, you guys have tremendous validation.
[00:34:23] SHANE: Yeah. The franchise development process. It's obviously important that you understand the business model and that you understand the economics of it and you know, all of that stuff. But to me, the two key pieces, most important pieces that a candidate needs to pay to. This first validation, why it's not, because you can ask that person what's their financials like, and you know, that sort of thing. That's certainly super important, but that person can give you the insight [00:35:00] on what is it like to be a franchisee with this franchise model to give you an example, every franchise, or looks at their agreement a little bit before. So I have a lot of stuff in my agreement that, you know, I am a lawyer, but I also have very good lawyers and my lawyers say, need to be in the room. Do I necessarily enforce those things? No, but me telling you that don't mean much, because we will only talk to once or twice. And my franchisees say, look, Shane, doesn't enforce this unless there's a reason to, and if you're trying your best, he's never going to find a reason that insight into how does the franchisor look at the relationship is key because it doesn't matter which franchise you're signing. You're signing an agreement that at bare minimum is five years more likely 10, 15, 20. And so you're in a long-term relationship. And so you better make sure that you want to be in a relationship with the people that run. The second piece [00:36:00] is talking to me because you're going to be in a relationship with me and you need to make sure that you understand how I see things. And I need to make sure that I understand how you see things. And if we mesh. Then it's going to be a great relationship.
[00:36:18] LANCE: I love it. I love it. That's such a perfect answer. And you know, in validation, a lot of times franchisees ask or prospective franchisees ask, let's say your franchisees, things like, so would you do it over again and that's a pretty telling response that they're waiting on. Absolutely. And again, based on your success with franchise business review and success in general, I know, I know the answers to these questions. You guys are rock solid. What are we not covered that you'd like to like to share today before we wrap up?
[00:36:51] JOHN: I think that's a pretty good snapshot. You know, just if you're interested in storm guard, Dr. Lance, and determine that it's under your way, we'd love to, [00:37:00] we'd love to work with you
[00:37:02] SHANE: yeah, I think, I think I'd like to say that it doesn't matter which franchise you're considering or that you sign. You're going to have an emotional roller coaster and day that you signed is going to be probably the highest emotional day that you have for awhile, because the next day. You're probably going to sit down and go, what did I do? I just commited myself to this and I got to do this and that's okay. Because you've got, if you're signing a storm guard, you've got the storm guard family. That's going to be everything in our house. To make sure that you're successful and to make sure that eventually after you get past some of the learning stuff and you're out of that trough, that your next emotional high is even higher than the day that you sign. And then it just keeps trending up so that you can come to me [00:38:00] conference, like I've had franchisees do. And tell me that joining storm guard was the best decision that they ever made other than getting married, having kids, things like that.
[00:38:09] LANCE: I love it. And that's why my favorite hashtag being in the franchise world is changing lives. Absolute. Cause when, you know, you said it so perfectly as we were just, uh, as you were just discussing, it's really a two way street, you know, when they come to see you, it's, it's, you know, you're listening to them and hearing what they're saying and what's important to them or maybe hearing what they're not saying. And likewise, uh, you know, is this gonna be. Is this going to be a good fit here because they might fit perfectly well in a different franchise, more than likely they don't fit with you. They're not going to fit with any others, but, but nevertheless, I mean, and this has been amazing. You guys have tossed out some just fantastic nuggets of information and it's been amazing hosting you. So, uh, I wish you continued success and, uh, we will speak again, John [00:39:00] North and Shane Lynch. Thank you so much. For talking about storm guard
[00:39:04] SHANE: thank you so much for having us. It's been a pleasure.
[00:39:07] LANCE: You're welcome.
[00:39:08] Thank you very much for listening today, please like follow and 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.