[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of all Things considered franchising. Powered by scottmylusfranchisecoach.com, all Things considered franchising is a podcast dedicated to the entrepreneur, people looking to research and explore business ownership or of course, diversify a current portfolio. Scott Milas Franchisecoach.com is an organization consulting organization that I formed many, many moons ago that helps people research and explore business ownership. Our no cost guidance, education and research helps people aligning the correct business to invest in or not.
I have to say I'm elated to have back to the show somebody who, if you're in the franchising industry and you don't know who she is, then you've been sleeping under a rock. But probably one of the most exciting people in franchising, probably one of the most talented people in franchising, especially franchising development.
Here to talk about her new brand that she's with, resting Rainbow. Welcome back to the show. Jamie Levine. Jamie, welcome.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Hello, Scotty. You're so kind to me.
Thank you for that.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: You're always kind to me and my clients, and I don't think I've ever seen you kind of get flustered in.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: This industry, which is interesting because, no, it can happen, that's for sure. But it's more in my personal life, more than professional life.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: I know exactly that feeling. And it's funny, as I said to people many in our last episode that we had you on the show, you and Kim, who we had on the show a few months ago, Kim woods are probably one of the first two people that I met in the franchising industry many, many moons ago. And actually, you were also very instrumental in helping me kind of get to that next level and suggest that I get into the consulting know. Jamie, a lot happens in this industry. There are a lot of changes.
You made a decision to leave a brand that you had been with and actually helped put on the map a little bit there. You put some big blimps on the radar for the brand. Things happen, management changes, whatever the excuse may be. Now with a company called resting Rainbow, which again, still fits you into the pet industry because I think that's a passionate industry for you because I know you have your own pets, dog, among other things.
Tell us a little about resting rainbow and have you been and kind of go from there?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. I still love woofies, and I still frequently speak to Amy, one of the know, still rocking the woofies tattoo, will never get rid of it. I love woofies and it's so exciting to see the franchisees that I brought into the system opening, and I just have lots and lots of pride for all those folks. And it's really exciting that I was able to be a part of that. And I definitely miss them, for sure. But I learned about resting change. Yes.
Change can be absolutely great. It doesn't mean you're not sad to say goodbye or something like that. But just moving on to a new brand doesn't mean anything.
There's no animosity. I still love that brand, honestly. I still help pitch it because I know the brand so well. Like, the consultants and even candidates I speak to are looking at woofies and stuff, and I still pitch it and talk about it and all positive, et cetera. So I love it.
I do that with all the brands I've been with because I love them. I fall in love, and I take it very seriously. But when I learned about resting Rainbow, it really kind of blew my mind.
We've been doing this for a long time, right? Franchise development. And on this side, the franchise development. After doing it for what, about ten years or so outside of the other part of the franchise world I was in, I've learned that candidates all want pretty much the same darn thing.
And this brand literally checks all the boxes, all of them. But you got to get past what I call the ick factor, right. Because it is pet cremation at the end of the day. And for some people, that's not going to work for them because it is sad and it is icky because you're dealing with deceased animals. But you take that piece of it and you put it off to the side for a moment and it's like, oh, my gosh. Two to three unskilled employees. Nobody wants employees anymore. Right.
And it's unskilled. Right. It's a high margin business.
We have an amazing item, 19, eight pages long, and it's a 35.8% EBITDA. So for the first half of 2023, just for the first six months of this year, they did $138,983 in EBITDA. That's just for six months.
It's crazy. But it also can be semi absentee absentee, which most people want today. They want their cake and eat it, too. It is section 179 eligible. The equipment lasts over 30 years. If you take care of it, it's a hub and spoke model. I'm sure you know what that means, right? So building out multiple territories, you're not, like, with a retail business or restaurant business or anything like that have the same cost of build out every time. You only need one territory with a cremator and the other territories are marketing dollars, the cost of a franchise fee and a vehicle for that. So it's very scalable for a much lower price for that scalability.
But I think one of the biggest things is that it's needs based. There's barely any selling that has to be done. It's kind of a field of dream situation, right? If you build it, they will come.
That's it. And I'd love to dive into that a little bit more further on. But hands down, the most important thing about this brand, outside of the passion of it, is that there is barely any competition.
I mean, think about it. Think of all the brands you represent, right? Even when I was at Woofie's, there's multiple mobile grooming van businesses. Now, when I was at home watch caregivers, there's like 100 home watch senior care franchises and all these other things, right? There's really barely any competition in the franchise space or mom and pop space. In reality, in the entire country, there's only probably a little over a thousand pet cremators in the entire country. So when I'm working with candidates, I will show them, like San Antonio, there's no pet cremators in San Antonio. There's one in new Brontfells, and then there's four in Austin. But that means all the vet clinics, which there's probably over 200 vet clinics in San Antonio or more, are using the one cremator, most likely in new Bronfels. There's so much opportunity in demand and the supply is super small. So those are the things that got me super excited.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: And you hit the nail on the head on this business because it tends to be a passionate business.
Again, it doesn't fit into the category of sexy. Let's face it, there is an emotional side to this, but there is a need, because today, what is it? Every three homes, someone has not only one pet, but two pets.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Yes. 70% of households have pets. 70%. And what's cool about this brand versus the other pet care brands? This isn't just working with dogs and cats. People are cremating everything except for fish, which is crazy. People are cremating their ferrets. Ferrets are huge for cremation, believe it or not, and chinchillas and rabbits, et cetera. So it appeals to a larger audience. Plus, 90% of people approximately are choosing cremation versus any other option because a lot of people don't want to bury, even if they have the opportunity to, because if they move, they want to be able to take those ashes, they want to be able to take their pet with them, or they want to be able to, like, I talked to a person recently that wants to, every time they go on their kayak, they want to take a little bit of the dog's ashes to sprinkle, because that dog used to go kayaking with him every day.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: So let's talk about the skill sets here, because it sounds like, and you gave a real good, detailed overview of the business itself. It's the financials, but there seems to be what we would call a sales aptitude to this business. It's getting out, it's networking with veterinarians.
I don't think people should think that this business is kind of that willy Loman where you're knocking on doors selling crematory services. So this is relationship building, getting involved in maybe doing, setting up a table at a farmer's market or something. So tell us a little bit about what you're seeing. And I know this is an emerging brand. It's taking off very quickly.
What are you seeing as far as a skill set? The type of a franchisee that you're looking for to be able to ward a franchise?
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So first of all, the corporate location has done no selling outside of Google Adwords and pay per click, believe it or not. So the business that they've gained from the veterinarian clinics, they never cold called any of them. They just had that mentality that we're going to build our Google rankings and our reputation with a consumer business, and then the vets will come to us, and that's exactly what happened. Now, of course, a new franchisee, I'm going to encourage them. Don't do that, because you can ramp up faster if you go and build those relationships with the vet clinics right away. And at the end of the day, the vet clinics need you. They need you. And I've had a lot of candidates, like, well, don't they already have relationships with another cremator? That is highly possible, but vets can't charge their client until they get the ashes back. So if they're taking way too long to get the ashes back because the demand is too high, they're going to want to work with you if you can get those ashes back in seven to ten business days. They also, vet clinics usually only have a small chest freezer at their clinic for their animals that they've euthanized. So if that chest freezer gets filled up too quick and they can't get somebody to empty it. They can't do any more euthanasias until that happens. So the franchisee can come to that vet and say, listen, I will get you your turnaround in seven to ten business days. We can work out a schedule where we're picking up pets a couple of times a week, if you'd like, or every other day, depending on your demand. I will also even buy you a larger chest freezer if you want. And then to kind of really put a little bit of icing on it is, hey, we can actually remove your medical waste for you, because then the franchisee can do that for all their clinics and do a bulk disposal of that, whereas the vet clinics are having to do it at a smaller rate and it costs them more. So it's very easy to earn the business from the veterinarian clinics because the demand is so high. But also, we have a multi revenue stream, and we can talk about that at some point if you'd like. But one of those multi revenue streams is partnering with a handful of veterinarians that will do home euthanasia. So the franchisee will advertise that on their behalf and schedule the appointment. And it's a combination of the euthanasia and the cremation at the same time. But the vet does all of that. They collect the payment, they do the euthanasia and stuff. So it's very easy to win a vet's business, and 75% of the business is coming from the veterinarians. But that's only because very few people know they can go directly to the cremator themselves.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Okay, so there is a direct selling to this and networking or whatever. Now, are there any special licenses that need to go with this, or is it per state?
I know to be a funeral home, I think you have to have certain licenses. And of course, crematory, you have to have certain when you're dealing with people. But anything on the pet side in.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: The business, not ongoing, Scotty. It's just that this is the hardest part. This is the hardest part, and it's the biggest barrier to entry, which is setting up your cremator in a location. So you have to find within the county where they are EPA zoned for a cremator. Right. And then you have to find a light industrial space where the landlord will allow you to put that cremator in. So the license is a air quality license. EPA. Right. So that's the hardest part. And so what we've done is we've recognized in the entire country with our mapping program, where all the crematoriums are, whether it's pet or human. So when we turn that overlay on, we know that, okay, this area has cremators, human or pet. And we know that that area is at least EPA zoned. Now, we can help them find a light industrial space to put it, or it could also be done on agricultural land.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: And you're providing those services, helping people find the right location.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Helping. We can't do it all, but we are helping.
So, yes, one of the big goals is to try to find second generation locations. So there's this really large company out of Canada called Gateway, and they use a lot of different other names here in the US where they are buying up mom and pops and then shutting them down to try to monopolize on that b to b business with the vets. And back this summer, the FTC shut it down. They finally caught on and shut it down. And I believe that they are trying to force them to sell off a bunch of, I think, close to 40%. And don't quote me for sure on that. That's a little bit of a rumor I heard. But because of that, we know of locations throughout the entire country that we could potentially take over. And in fact, our very first franchisee is an example of that. 30 minutes north of our corporate location in Opalaka, Florida. We found one of those scenarios, and we immediately took over that lease. And now our very first franchisee has soft opened there, just waiting for their cremator to be delivered and installed before the end of this month. So that's another opportunity we have.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Interesting. We're talking to Jamie Levine, who is vice president of development for an interesting concept. Again, I would think for people who have a passion for pets and kind of have a strong heart, a company called resting rainbow pet cremation, not necessarily just for dogs, but dogs, cats, and other related pets, except, as Jamie mentioned before, fish.
Jamie, we talked a little bit about skill sets, kind of that networking, one to two employees, non skilled labor, which is great.
Talk about investment level.
Where are you looking to see your candidates in the financially, is this self funded type business? Is it an SBA approved business? Maybe share a little bit more about that with our audience?
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
Audience wise. I know you didn't really quite ask this, but I think it kind of all goes along with know. It is a passion based business. It is community know. To really capture that consumer audience, you've got to create that awareness in that community, and you can just stick with Google Adwords and pay per click. But if you really want to kind of dive into it, do like you said, set up a table at farmers market and work with other pet professionals to work with the ASPCA and rescues and stuff like that. But the biggest audience that I'm really finding is mostly appeal to this are other business owners. So I'm working with multiple other Amazon dealers. I'm working with multi unit franchisees from crumble and subway, School of Rock. It's been very interesting. So the people who are already business owners are salivating over this because of that two to three employees, et cetera. The investment level is on the low side, it's about 198,000. On the high side, it's just shy of 460,000.
But the biggest difference between low to high is whether they are leasing or financing the equipment. This is a very equipment heavy, asset based franchise investment. And that's good. That's wonderful, because you can get financing easily and leasing, and because that cremator, which is the biggest part of the investment, starts at $120,000 for a two chamber, but they can get all the way up to an eight chamber cremator, especially if they're doing multi unit territories, they should do something like that.
That can be leased, and because it lasts over 30 years, they can get a longer lease term. Right. Also with SBA, SBA is not an approval thing anymore. But when I joined Wrestling Rainbow, I quickly went to Fran fund and said, please get this, find me some lenders. And they were able to do so very easily. They're like, yeah, our banks love this because I sent them the FDD, et cetera.
From a financial perspective, on the candidate side, we want them to have around at least 70,000 liquid and 300,000 net worth. So it's all relative to what they can get for financing those types of things.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Registration states, are you operating in all registration states?
Where are you in that?
[00:19:37] Speaker B: So we just became a franchise or in June. So we're a little bit behind the eight ball on registering in some of them. We have submitted our FDD to almost all the registrations, minus North Dakota and Washington, I think Rhode island. Right. So we are pending still in Virginia, Maryland, New York, and California, like the big ones, but in Illinois. But we have started that process.
They should hopefully be fingers crossed before the end of 2023. So our cremator provider is based out of California, so we definitely want to be in California.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Interesting. Well, it sounds like in an exciting type business, it's definitely outside the norm. It's a niche market.
It's not a crowded industry. Again, it's emotional, it's passionate. So I tend to tell people, my clients, that if you want to get involved in a passionate type business, you're going to have to have a little bit of thick skin, a lot of patience, because you're dealing with people's emotions.
Jamie, if somebody wanted to get a hold of you and learn more about the opportunity at resting Rainbow, what is the best way to contact you or find out more information about the opportunity? Obviously they can reach out to me, but if they wanted know start doing.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Some, that was going to be my first answer. Call Scotty Milas and he will connect us. But of course they can check out wrestlingrainbow.com and learn a little bit more about the brand. They can reach out to me directly through my LinkedIn profile or whatnot. But at the end of the day, I think what people do need to understand is we are an emerging brand like we're a baby. And so we need early adopters that really see the big giant opportunity. The good news is we have one of the best item 19s I've actually ever seen in franchising. It blows me away how detailed it is. Eight pages long, a new candidate talking to us. Even though we're emerging, we have quite a bit of data, financial data for them. And when they see that big opportunity, if I can get them to the point of looking at that data, they get pretty darn excited. Especially when I share my mapping program and I say, look, you've got like two or three competitors, and look at these 300 vet clinics that need your business, right? It gets pretty darn exciting, but they've got to be able to get past that ick factor body, no?
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Yeah, you're definitely right.
Speaking about emerging brands, and I go through this exercise with my clients in regards to what type of brand are they looking for? Are you looking for that McDonald's at subway or do you want.
The advantage of an emerging brand is that, and I always use the analogy, you can always get into the office through the back door. If the front door is locked, people are going to know who you are. You're going to have direct contact with the franchise work, kind of be involved in helping build the brand, and that can be exciting. You get involved in a McDonald's or some of the larger brands and it's not a negative, you're one of 30,000 franchisees or you can be one of 100 franchisees and again, you're not necessarily getting in the back door, you're going in the front door or have to wait till the door is open, maybe have to leave a phone message. So again, there are advantages to emerging brands of being part of it.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Yeah. The legacy brands are going to be more rigid, right. Because they've already set the tone of what works, what doesn't work. There's going to be very little flexibility or to challenge or change anything. Right. But with an emerging brand like resting Rainbow, there's still so much to learn and there's going to be more flexibility there, more ability to be creative and offer ideas and let's try them out, et cetera. But I always call them, with an emerging brand, the first ten franchisees are the most important. Wouldn't you agree?
It's so important for them to succeed. So if you can be the first ten franchisees, or really even the first 25 franchisees, you're going to be the puppy. And the puppies get all the attention. Right. I've got four dogs, and when we brought my puppy, he was ten months old, who's laying right here, actually.
He gets all the attention. The other three dogs were really not happy when he came home.
They've adjusted and they realize that they still get love, too. But you get to be the puppy and really be a part of it, and that's great for some people. And for other people who are more risk adverse, it's not going to work for.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: And that's why I say risk adverse need not apply.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: No, absolutely. And that section that we focus
[email protected]. That we focus in risk tolerance, because if somebody has a low risk for tolerance, then an emerging brand is not something that they should be looking at walking on eggshells.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: I completely agree.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Anything else, real quick, you want to share? I mean, believe it or not, we're almost out of time here. But anything else you want to share about the opportunity, the brand you mentioned reaching out, going to the website, reaching out to me. But anything else, you think that's important to know?
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's just one last thing I would love to touch on is the fact that this is a multi revenue stream model as well, which is another thing that most people want on that checklist. Right.
That allows you to really create margins in a lots of different ways. So first and foremost, this is private pet cremation. Most of the competition that is out there is doing communal pet cremation. So it's another way to stand out in the marketplace.
And franchisees are not just making money off the cremation that is the bulk, but they're making money off of selling earns. And earns are starting at $100 and go all the way up to $5,000 and the margins are insane. $100 earn cost us $5.30.
So the margins are huge and people are going to believe it or not, you may call and be like, yes. How much to cremate my french bulldog? I've got french bulldogs on my shirt today. I don't know if you notice how much to cremate my french bulldog. That'll be $200. How long does it take? Seven to ten business days. I can't wait that long. Can you do it faster? Yes, we have a faster same day or next day turnaround, but it's going to cost $200 more. I'll take it. They don't even hesitate. Right. So you can charge over a faster thing and then how am I going to get my pet there? Well, you have two choices. You can drop the pet off at our location or we can come pick it up in a very professional, dignified manner with a casket and a gurney and stuff. But we charge 75 plus dollars for that. And believe it or not, some people actually want to watch the whole process. Again, $200 charge. I wouldn't do that. But people do. People want to have pet funerals at your location, that's $1000 to $1,500. But we also do things with, like I said, the home euthanasia. We do DNA testing. That is huge right now, necropsy as well as, believe it or not, cloning. We've only had one client do cloning back in August, but it was a $46,000 cost that that person paid up front. And I can't tell you exactly how much we made off of that, but it was a lot.
So these multi revenue streams and franchisees, those new franchisees can get. You have had people say, oh, what if we work with somebody to do acupuncture? That's always a possibility to add to these potential revenue streams when you partner out with other veterinarians and stuff like that. So bottom line, I think it's a winner. I think I've been calling it a sleeper. I'm like, this is a sleeper. And this is something that is just huge. If you can just put that ick to the side and look at the details of it, it's exciting. I've been talking with my hands this whole time. Can you tell in French?
[00:28:17] Speaker A: Well, Jamie it's great to have you back on. We're real excited for you, and I'm looking forward to presenting this to my clients. And, of course, it's always great to hear from you and see your passion in the business model.
It's second to none.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: Thank you, Scotty.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: So we've been talking, as I said, to Jamie Levine, who is vice president of development for Resting Rainbow. You can check her out on LinkedIn or you can reach out on the Resting Rainbow website. I am your host, Scotty Milas, all things considered franchising podcast host and founder, also president, CEO and founder of scottmilosfranchisecoach.com. You can reach me at
[email protected] go to the website, scottmilosfranchisecoach.com, or just give me a call at 860-751-9126 this is Scotty Miles. It's signing off. Until next time, Jamie. Have a great holiday and we'll talk to you soon.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Scotty. Have a great day.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Thank you. Bye.
