Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 00:00:05 Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of All Things Considered Franchising, powered by Scott, my franchise coach.com. I am your host, Scotty. My All Things Considered Franchising is a podcast dedicated to the entrepreneur, someone who is seeking and researching opportunities. Business ownership wants to explore franchising, all things considered franchising has, uh, information about how to research, where to research, uh, people to talk to, and things you should be thinking about when investigating and researching and opportunity. Scott Mylo franchise coach.com. I am the president founder of the consulting organization that helps people build that roadmap and then introduce them to brands that fit. I have a, a guy that I've known for a lot of years right now, and I have to say, I, I, I was kind of scratching my head that it's been five years, I guess four years since he started or been part of the REM group. Um, and it seems a lot longer than that, especially where the REM group is. And, um, my guess, Carrie, I, if, if you ever wanted to just sit at a bar and order some hot wings and drink a couple of beers and shoot breeze about business ownership being an entrepreneur, this is the guy you probably want to have in that, uh, uh, Nexi on that bar stool. Carrie, welcome to the show. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:01:24 That's quite an introduction. <laugh>, I like. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:01:28 You know, it's good to have you, you, you and I have re rubbed elbows and, uh, you know, and, and, and, and, and chit chatted and, you know, just kind of talked about everything in regards to business, business ownership, franchising, and being a VP at the Reham Group. Uh, and, and the Reham Group is a, is an F s O with a unique twist to it. Um, you build them, you manage 'em, you find the real estate, you get 'em up and running, and they become successful. Um, and, and, and it's unique in the FSO market because a lot of FSOs spend most of their time trying to sell the franchises and really don't give a hoot whether they get opened or not. Rep 'em takes a different approach, and I think it's the right approach and the right way to do it. So, uh, and you're involved with Alloy personal training, splashing Dash, uh, forever Young, uh, aging Solutions. So you got Keno Kinetics, uh, there's just a list of brands. So tell us a little bit about how this journey started for you, because, you know, every time I see you, I think you're still 21. Um, and, and, and realize, you know, you really, you, you're too young to be a business owner and have all your experiences being a franchisee, a franchisor. So tell us about franchising, how you got into this and, you know, just kind of go from there. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:02:40 No, wow. Um, so yeah, maybe 21 plus 20. It
Speaker 2 00:02:43 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:02:45 The good teams of hair from my father may betray me, but, um, no, I, uh, I, geez, franchising. I started officially 14 years ago. Um, I had been working at, um, fidelity Investments in 2008 and 2009. So if you recall what happened in the fall of 2008, you can understand why I didn't make it in 2009. And, um, I had an opportunity, uh, arise to go work with a butcher shop franchisor out of the state of New Hampshire. Um, ironically, I had been their first customer ever, and, and they were always like, Hey, if you ever want to come work with us, just let us know. And, um, I fell into a place where it was about time to, to reach out and say, Hey guys, I, I need a job. And that turned into come hang out with us for a couple hours. We had a whole conversation about, uh, entrepreneurship and, and franchising and business, business development and business ownership.
Speaker 1 00:03:34 And they said, Hey, are you gonna come be a director of BizDev over here for us? And, you know, that lasted six months until like, Hey, you're gonna, you're gonna be in charge of the marketing department now. And, you know, that lasted another five years. And so it was a really, really great experience to be working with an immersion franchise or at a very, very young age. Um, unfortunately ran out of money and then, you know, wasn't with that franchise or, and moved myself and my family to New York. Ended up, uh, working at Boris at the Deli meat company. Um, not exactly a franchise, but you know, they have distributorships similar, right, similar relationship. Um, and while I was there, just had an opportunity to, you know, research a ton of real estate opportunities, maybe a little bit of Bitcoin, and then mostly, uh, franchises, right? And
Speaker 2 00:04:21 Interesting
Speaker 1 00:04:21 Brought me back to my roots of what I really love, which is, you know, entrepreneurship and, uh, with, with guardrails of course. And, uh, I ended up buying into a franchise, uh, bought into a fitness concept, and, um, was doing that and had an opportunity back in 2019 to join the rep group. And I mean, what a, what a, like what
Speaker 2 00:04:42 An organization. <laugh> the
Speaker 1 00:04:43 Company wasn't, the company wasn't even called the rep group. It was, it was another guy in in me. And it's like, here's a fitness brand and go see what you can do. And, you know, we start running for about four or five months, then boom, covid hits and everything skids to a halt for another four or five months. And, you know, it gives us a real opportunity to sit back and evaluate the business and our plan of, uh, of going to market and prep for launch. So coming out of 2020, we, we hit it pretty strong with, you know, re really, um, recognized for Ellie Mental, uh, services, right? That, that was one of the first brands that really, really took off for us. And, um, had a great year and a half, you know, ride with that. It's still going, and now we're up to 13 brands and, and adding them as we go. So it's, it's been a wow, a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 00:05:28 You know, one of the things, and you touched on this, one of the things that it amazes me about the franchising space, uh, whether you're a franchisee or a franchisor, fs o whatever, is, is that the industry seems to constantly remain strong, even when things start to go a little left or right, uh, with what's going on in the world, whether it's the economy, there's certain things happening, it remains a constant source and opportunity for a lot of people to get into business. And, you know, I remember when the pandemic hit, and, and I'm sure you do too, that, you know, everybody was talking, oh my gosh, you know, we gotta get our disaster plan in place. We gotta, you know, uh, uh, you know, uh, you know, uh, we, we gotta lock, we gotta make cuts, we gotta do this. But you know, a lot of companies, especially yours, uh, the REM group, uh, franchisees franchise, yours grew during this time. I know my business, you know, quadrupled as far as inquiries and people investing. Um, what is it about franchising that it, it, it, it stays strong during those times? I mean, what do you think it is? I mean, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 00:06:40 I mean, you, you told me we only have like 12 to 13 minutes.
Speaker 2 00:06:44 <laugh> I mentioned,
Speaker 1 00:06:47 I mentioned I worked at Fidelity Investments, so I know what a 401K is, right?
Speaker 1 00:06:53 But, um, I, so, you know, that's a, it's a, it's a great question, but I, I think an answer that would make sense or that that will resonate is, you know, for a lot of people, you know, they, they come outta college, they go get a job because that's what they're programmed to do, and they end up following that job for 10, 15, 20 years, and they don't really think twice about it. And those jobs are fragile. And in situations like covid or, um, economic crunch times, those jobs can go away very, very quickly. And when you start to, and these are a lot of the candidates we talk to, right? Who, who've had these, these, these corporate jobs, and they just, I, I don't wanna say this right way, but for lack of knowledge, they just don't know any better. And in the back of their minds, there's a lot of people who have always wanted to be their own boss, right? They've always wanted to own their own business, whether it's small, whether it big, they've just wanted to be in control of their own opportunity. And franchising is a great way to do that. I, I use the term earlier guardrails, right? I, I always used to joke around, it's like when you were bowling as a kid and they had those inflatable
Speaker 2 00:07:55 Right <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:07:56 That you wouldn't miss, right? It's, it's what franchising does as it condenses timelines of success and gives systems and processes that otherwise would've taken multiple years to develop for, you know, mom and pop single own it, single owned location, right? Right. And we can set scale to tune of thousands and thousands of, of units opening
Speaker 2 00:08:17 With a number of brands in your portfolio. And I know, you know, they're, you work with consultants like myself who present, you know, candidates, potential candidates to yourself, potential franchisees, but with a, you know, 13 brands in your portfolio, what are some of the things that you look for in a candidate to line up the right person with the right brand? I mean, you know, a lot of people say, you know, there's this old saying that you don't need industry experience to own a franchise, but there are certain Yeah. You know, things that you gotta have for a certain brand. So what is it that you look for at rep 'em to line up people within a brand? Because you may get a call from somebody that says, Hey, I'm interested in Eli, but you're saying, Hey, you know what, Eli's really not the way you should go. Maybe you should go with Alloy Splash, you know, in certain things. So what do you look for? How do you, how do you maneuver that?
Speaker 1 00:09:15 Well, so we have, we have very, very different brands, right? All 13 of our brands are kind of different sectors. Some of 'em are service based, some of 'em are retail, some of 'em are, you know, they, they require different things. So we can't just put everybody into just one box. Um, but typically, you know, outside of somebody coming in who's well funded, who shows up on time, right? And knows that this is something to do, um, we're just kind of, we're just kind of having conversations with them and extrapolating from them what they're looking at, um, why they're looking at it and what that is ultimately gonna mean for them once they own that business. Um, you mentioned something about the industry, right? Because when you sign a, a franchise agreement, you're in that industry for 10 years. So I always ask the candidates that I'm working with, you know, if you sign this franchise agreement, but when you do this, you're gonna be in this business for 10, 10 years, a decade. Are you sure you want to be tied to the fitness space for a decade? Are you sure you want to be tied to the health and wellness space, the kids space for a decade? And as long as they can confidently answer yes to that, we usually feel pretty good about it. All right? Right.
Speaker 2 00:10:20 And I think, and I think it's safe to say that, you know, when you met, you said this earlier, whether it's one or three or five, you know, kind of that single, you know, the entrepreneur, somebody who is really getting into franchising really should be considering the scalability of franchising. It's, it's, you know, you don't build a legacy on one, and you don't build wealth on one. I mean, a, again, there are people that are comfortable with just one, they're, they just like that, you know, security, I guess they're not looking to build anything, but if really, if somebody really wants to scale, that's where your legacy and your wealth is gonna come from. Correct.
Speaker 1 00:10:59 Correct. And I, and I think that, you know, building that on what a franchise is, is a collection of systems and processes that somebody else has put in place for it. Right? Right. Lean into those. And I, I'm not saying that anybody who comes over to, to us and says, Hey, I'm looking at a franchise, couldn't go out and develop their own systems and processes, but certainly a lot easier to go pick up a hamburger at McDonald's than it is to make 100 grill outback, right?
Speaker 2 00:11:25 Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean that, but you know, that's why in in franchising you have what's called the engineering entrepreneur, the, the person who really doesn't fit into franchising because they want to develop all the systems. They want to get up in the morning and put soup on the menu, or they want to add a new piece of, uh, equipment in the gym without, you know, having to ask anybody or seeing if it really works because they just saw something on, you know, YouTube or Facebook, uh, you know, the process entrepreneur, to somebody who can really focus in on managing the day-to-day business or hiring the person to run the business, delegate and scale and grow as large as they want, and stop when they're done.
Speaker 1 00:12:06 And each one of those factors plays into the conversations that we have. And then you, you call it out, great consultants like yourself are, are helping people understand what their course is, right? And as long as they understand how that path is gonna look, it helps everybody along the way, right?
Speaker 2 00:12:21 You know, you and I, you know, we, we talk to people every day, and I think, you know, it, it, it, it, I think we get surprised that some of the questions that we get asked, I mean, you know, we could probably, I, I'm waiting for the day and I wish I was a better writer because I'd love to put a book together on, you know, questions you shouldn't be asking when you're investigating business ownership, even if it's just an, an independent that you're looking to buy. But, uh, we get 'em. And, and you know, one of the things or the misnomer about franchising is, is that you're, you're making an investment into a business, and the franchisor is gonna do everything for you. I mean, we talk about the systems and the best practices and the operations manual, but there is a level of effort on the franchisees part, you know, to go out and find customers network. Do you have that sales aptitude? Do you want retail people coming to you? I mean, share your your thoughts on that, because there is this misnomer that, you know, uh, I just sit back and put my hands up and, uh, you know, every I'm, I'm gonna become a millionaire. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:13:21 <laugh>. That's what, yeah, that's what I was saying. We got franchise available. Anybody wants to do
Speaker 2 00:13:26 <laugh>?
Speaker 1 00:13:28 Um, no, I think I, I mean that's a, that's a great point. And I, when I was, um, when I first bought into a franchise and I was, you know, call it five, six years ago, my plan was to put as much effort into a regular job as to into a franchise and to scale it up, right? And I think that that's a really, really good approach for somebody early on. Um, not necessarily realistic. Uh, there are a lot of investors out there who are looking for what I call semi absentee. I don't go as far as absentee, but the semi absentee is something that does prove out. Uh, but you still gotta put in, you know, your time, effort, and energy. And what that can look like is, you know, I would call it a little bit of a sliding scale, heading down where you launch the business, you're gonna be excited, you wanna lean in and really make sure that everything's getting checked off as you go through the standard operating process of opening.
Speaker 1 00:14:16 Um, and then you want to get your, your people in place and get 'em situated. And at that point, you can generally scale back and, and get down to maybe 10, 15 hours a week. But, um, at that point, it is a, it is a, a part of your life, right? This is something that is going to say, oh, I own that and somebody else is running it for me. The majority of people are, are now going to be involved with this. And that's where I was explaining before, with that end your basis, like if you're gonna go out and buy an alloy personal training, sure. Could you be there 10 hours a week, maybe working out three hours a week and, and hanging out for a little bit of time on the front and the end to, to chat with your staff? Absolutely. But are you taking your hands off of that, that steering wheel while you're driving the thing? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 00:14:58 Yeah. Yeah. It's like flying a 7 47, you know, I mean, it's, the exciting part is all the passengers getting on the plane and taxiing to runway, taking off, getting it up, up to the altitude. But, you know, once you get up to 37,000 square feet, uh, 30,000 feet, you know, you still gotta fly the plane. I mean, it's, it's, you know, granted, you may be on autopilot, but you know, you know, <laugh>, you're not playing poker or cards. At least you hope not, but <laugh> leaving your passion
Speaker 1 00:15:25 To keep with the plane analogy, one of the, one of the benefits of using a development office like us is that we've done a ton of the research ahead of time. We've done the, you know, the, the, um, due diligence and made sure that the brand is good, right? And effect the plane was built on the ground before we took it off. So you're not, you're not getting onto a plane that slap it on panels mid-air.
Speaker 2 00:15:45 Yeah. We're talking to, uh, Carrie Tober, who's, uh, VP of franchise development over at the REM group, uh, an F SSO that handles 13 different brands in different categories. I'm Scotty, my, the host of All Things Considered Franchising. Um, you recently dabbled into some new categories, um, you know, uh, you know, categories that I happen to have be very fond of. I, I love the pet industry. I just think the pet industry is a need, not a want. Um, you know, what is it two out of three households now have not only one pet, but two pets? Yeah. I think are statistics like that. But, um, tell us a little bit about some of the new brands that you brought in these new category. Um, it's exciting. Like I said, I love it. Um, you gotta be a pet lover to be in it. I mean, I, I'll be frank with our listening off, uh, uh, audiences, you know, if you don't like dogs then, or cats or any kind of pet, you know, I, I wouldn't recommend being in it, but tell us a little bit about these, these new opportunities that you got on the table now.
Speaker 1 00:16:42 Yeah, absolutely. And you nailed it. I mean, when I, uh, was given an opportunity to work in the pet space, uh, last summer, I was like, uh, I haven't had a pet in a couple years. And like, listen, just, just get in there and check it out. And identified very, very quickly. Yes, there were a ton of households that had animals prior to the pandemic, but then during Covid, I mean, one out of five households added a, a dog, right? It was 23 million dogs that were added to our society. It's a astronomical number. And then as a, as a result of that, um, you know, spending all this time at home, people are really budding up and, and treating their, their, their pets and their dogs like kids. And the relationship just shifted right in the last three years too. These animals sleep in our beds, they sit on the couch, they're probably getting treated better than the other people
Speaker 2 00:17:26 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:17:28 And like, we wanna, we wanna take care of them because they do. I elicit pride. They do just illicit joy and love from us. And, you know, you wouldn't let your kid walk around all dirty. You wouldn't let yourself walk around all dirty. So, um, there became a, a real big need for services that, that, you know, take care of dogs in particular. And so, um, what we have with Splash and Dash for Dogs is a, um, a full service groomery. Um, but they've really taken an approach where, how do we maximize what's happening within the hours of the day? So with Safety Forward, I mean, everything in that facility is built on making sure that the pet is 100% taken care of and safe, um, just like you would feel good about dropping your kid off at a, at a daycare. Um, but we've, we've engineered it to be able to move about 60 to 80 dogs per day through the facility and get them cleaned and or groomed.
Speaker 1 00:18:18 Um, and the way that, the way that the brand owner has done that is by taking what I would call like a quicker, fast casual approach, where you break down the, the roles into individual categories, and you know, when the dog goes out back, they're met by somebody who's gonna, um, either prep them, meaning they're gonna clean their eyes, their ear, uh, their ears, their nose, their nails, then they go to a bathing station, and there's one person who's specifically responsible for bathing the an, uh, the animals. And then if they need a groom, uh, they'll actually go to the groomer. And the concept of this is that only the highest, um, the highest valued or the highest required skill sets touch the animals when they need to. So if the groomer is the highest paid person on staff, you don't want that person cutting toenails or, or washing the dock, right? That's something that a lower paid, uh, member of your staff can handle, but the groomer's the only one who's doing things like scissor work, right? So you're not gonna give a person who's untrained a scissor to go clip around a dog's ear. We want somebody who knows what they're doing to touch that. Yeah. It's
Speaker 2 00:19:19 Kind of that, you know, uh, you know, you mentioned fast casual, but it's kind of that subway mentality that, that station, you know, your first person that you're talking to is the person who really likes to talk to people, Hey, welcome to Subway, what can I get ya? And then, you know, as you cr inch into the line, it's less and less conversation, but when you get at the end of the line, again, that person at the register is the person, Hey, thanks for coming. I mean, that's the way it should be. But it, it, it's a great, it's a great idea. I mean, I think that it, it's alarming and it's a great category, the pet industry. I mean, it's,
Speaker 1 00:19:49 Yeah, we've had, we've, we've had a lot of success with that one. And you made a comment earlier about, you know, multi-units and a lot of people coming in and wanting to buy, um, you know, more empires. And this is a brand that for whatever reason, I've had a number of 10 packs come through. Like, people who are just like, we want markets, right? Right. Technology that our founder Dan Barton has crafted and put in place for slashing Dash it, it's unbelievable. I mean, it's literally using AI to assign which employees need to go to which tasks at what time. And so he's looking at pulling seconds outta the day to drive efficiencies, all while keeping the safety of that animal in mind.
Speaker 2 00:20:26 Great. Great. Um, believe it or not, we're running outta time here, but, um, any words of wisdom for individuals, uh, listening, our listening offense, uh, that are hesitating to pick up the phone, uh, to talk or learn more about business ownership? I mean, maybe, uh, some words of wisdom to get people past that, eh, you know, or, you know, franchising is, is, is, is, you know what, you know, people look at franchising and say, it's not independent. You're not a business owner, you're part of a major corporation. I disagree. You are an independent business owner. You own the business. You can have owned the real estate if you want somewhere down the road. And of course, you could sell your business or sell your stores later on down, you know, as your, as your contract winds down or renew it. So any words of wisdom to get people, you know, just to kind of get that initial call going.
Speaker 1 00:21:17 Yeah, I wish you prepped me for this one, Scott. I got a million different <laugh>. Um, I mean, I, I would, I would say, listen, like, you know, take, take the leap, right? I, I have this line that I love, which is, the answer's always no, unless you ask, right? And if, and if you're not actively going out there and, and pushing boundaries and trying something, you're, you're never gonna know what it's like on the other side. And, you know, as you're saying, I'm thinking to myself like, maybe the Forbes list of billionaires is a little out there, but like, right. I don't think there's anybody on the list of billionaires who has a job, right? I think they own their own businesses, or they own real estate, or they've inherited it all right? Those are the lucky ones. But, you know, the, the people who, who really want that ownership, and they wanna understand what type of tax benefits they get and what type of freedom they get and what they can do within the confines of that business ownership. And then, you know, the other piece of that is, is the most important, which is again, the, the pride of ownership and, and what you get by impacting your community. I, I just, I don't know that that's something that you're having a traditional corporate lifestyle,
Speaker 2 00:22:18 Right? Right. Yeah. I I always use the phrase complacent optimist, you know, it's the person who's sitting back waiting for the boss to walk in the door and saying, Hey, we're gonna give you a raise. Or Hey, you know, are you interested in a promotion? Instead of being, you know, that more aggressive type person and saying, Hey, you know, I've done this, this, and this. I think I deserve this. Or, I'd like to talk to you about, you know, a different position. You know, it's that complacent optimist, you know, when franchising, you have a partner, it's not a really, a financial partner other than the royalties, but they can help you grow. I mean, it's, it's,
Speaker 1 00:22:53 I like that complacent optimism, right? Because on the flip side of that, Boston come in and say, Hey, we don't need you
Speaker 2 00:22:58 Anymore. Right? Exactly. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Well, Carrie, any last minute words here? What, what would be the best way for someone to get ahold of you to, uh, learn more about, uh, the rep and brands? Uh, maybe just some general questions about, Hey, I'm still a little undecided here. And again, uh, you know, education wise for our listening audience, you know, you don't talk to somebody on Tuesday, tell 'em what color you want on Wednesday and pick it up on Thursday. This is a timely process. I mean, you're looking at sixty, ninety, a hundred twenty days, and of course, if it ends, if it's a business that requires retail, you're looking at another six to 12 months before you actually get your doors open. But what's the best way for someone to get ahold of you?
Speaker 1 00:23:38 Well, outside of talking to my agent, Scott Milless, um, you know, our, uh, our website is, uh, is reham group.com. It's r egroup.com. Uh, that would be a good way to get in there and see what brands we have and, and learn a little bit about what our company does and how we do it differently. Um, for me, uh, LinkedIn is the best way to do it. Just type in my name. I'm very, very present on there. You can shoot me a message or, or kick me an email. That's public as well. It's just Carrie, c a r y rep group.com. So, great.
Speaker 2 00:24:09 Great. Well, Carrie, it's always great catching up and I, I, I hope we'll be able to have you back shortly. And, uh, I look forward sitting down at the bar with you again and some hot wings and, uh, beers. I mean, uh, <laugh>, we're a
Speaker 1 00:24:21 Couple months away from that, so I, I,
Speaker 2 00:24:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah, A couple of nice, uh, I guess your traveling season with, uh, all the conferences is coming up, so
Speaker 1 00:24:30 I don't know if we wanna tell everybody that I'm at 42 flights already this year, so
Speaker 2 00:24:33 <laugh>, I'm, uh,
Speaker 1 00:24:35 I'm a frequent fly to the max right now, so, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:38 Well, well listen, um, stay in touch. Thanks for having us. Um, this is Scotty, my, a host of All Things Considered Franchising, powered by Scott, my franchise coach.com. If anyone has any questions for me, go to my website, Scott, my franchise coach.com. All things considered franchising.com or email me Scott Scott mylo franchise coach.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn. This is Scotty Mylo signing off. Until the next time, all things considered franchising.
