Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey, everybody. Welcome to another podcast. All Things Considered Franchising. All Things Considered Franchising is a series of conversations with entrepreneurs in and out of the franchise industry. People who are exploring opportunities want more information about business ownership. Scott, my, I am Scottie, my Scott, my franchise coach.com is a consulting organization helping people research and explore business ownership services. And the guidance and education that we provide are at no cost for our clients. Today we have a gentleman who brings a lot of tenure to business, working in corporate America, and then making the shift to owning a franchise. Uh, somebody I've gotten to know over the years now through the, um, e r C five, my local chamber, uh, he belongs to the local chamber as well. George d Man, bro. George, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 00:01:02 Thank you for having me, Scott. I'm looking forward to all your questions and, um, hopefully I can be helpful.
Speaker 1 00:01:09 Great. You know, it's a small world, George, we were just talking before we hit the record button that you have family that went to the same high school that I did. We have, uh, we have connections to families that, uh, in the areas that we each grew up in or I grew up in. So it's a small world, isn't it? I mean, it's just when you start connecting the dots. And that leads me to my first question, George. You know, you have a tenured experience both on the corporate side, and now of course as a business owner. Uh, you were involved in the printing industry for many, many years. We won't get into the number of years because nobody likes to talk a specific number. We'll just use it politely as tenured. Uh, you were in the retail business, but talk about your, your, your, your path in corporate America that finally kind of, um, triggered you to get out and start thinking about business ownership, but you really weren't looking for a business. You kind of stumbled on the idea of owning your own business. Take us kind of walk us through your, your, your, your journey here, your path, you know, uh, you know, about how you got to where you are and where you started and, you know, uh, your successes in corporate America as well.
Speaker 2 00:02:25 Well, I, uh, I hope this is helpful and, uh, I'd be available for anybody to contact me and, uh, I can, you know, give them more information. But, uh, once I got outta college, um, my dad had been a salesperson all his life, and I just felt that, uh, and he had a very good life, uh, earned a good living, and we were a very happy, uh, family because of it. And I just felt, well, I'm gonna go into sales. And I thought that sales was a great idea because, uh, you know, you're, you're not, uh, you, you, you're not, uh, in a, in a bucket that you're only gonna earn this much money, right? It's, it's you, it's, uh, you know, you can earn as much as you, uh, want to. And, uh, I was very successful in sales. And I had been in, um, uh, originally started in a company that was, uh, in the telecom, uh, marketplace.
Speaker 2 00:03:26 But I had an opportunity to go to work for a, uh, family that owned a very large printing company in the Boston area, and I worked for them for 20 years. And, um, it was, you know, it was great. Uh, I made president's, uh, award, uh, 10 of those years. Uh, and the, the family eventually, uh, got an offer they couldn't refuse and sold the business. And the dynamics changed dramatically, uh, because we were bought by a large corporation, even though we were, at one point, I think we had 120 million, uh, and it wa did have a, a corporate environment, but once we were sold to a company that was, uh, also in the printing business, but, uh, their revenue was, uh, close to a billion dollars. Wow. The corporate, uh, uh, environment changed dramatically. And I started looking, uh, around, and I had an opportunity to start a retail, uh, business, uh, in a resort area.
Speaker 2 00:04:38 Uh, and, uh, it was a, it was, again, a, a good learning experience. And, um, we just couldn't make enough money, uh, to sustain ourselves because of the, uh, the, the seasonality in a, uh, you know, in a, uh, an environment, uh, such as a, uh, a tourist area. So I was still looking to do something and I kept on thinking, I wanna start a business. Um, and I wanted to be in sales, but I don't want to, uh, have, uh, have to worry about, uh, having a C F O, having all these, you know, additional people to, uh, to support. And, uh, I was introduced to a, uh, a financial consultant. And at the time, I didn't know, you know, what he was, uh, gonna consult with me about. Right. He was an awfully nice guy, <laugh>, we had great telephone conversations, and at the time, I wasn't, uh, I wasn't working, and I had taken a couple of months to just kind of, uh, figure out what I was gonna do. And he started talking about franchises one time on the telephone, and all I could think of is making sandwiches, <laugh>. And
Speaker 1 00:06:08 I said, five hour long, and the golden arches
Speaker 2 00:06:11 <laugh>. Right, exactly. And I said, that's not what I want to do. And he educated me. Um, he was a, uh, he was a financial consultant, but he also consulted in, uh, getting people interested in franchises. And he was, uh, very knowledgeable as you are Scott, uh, about the business. I had really no knowledge. Um, and, and again, as I said, I didn't want to have a brick and mortar, uh, lots of employees, things of, you know, that nature. I wanted to be, have something that I could use my sales ability to help people in their business. And we eventually eliminated a lot of people that, uh, uh, a lot of franchises, right. Uh, we had talked about, and we got down to a company called Schooly Mitchell. I'd never heard of them. Um, did a little research on my end and we continued to talk and, uh, eventually I went there on what they call a discovery day. Um, they're in ca they happen to be a Canadian,
Speaker 1 00:07:27 Right. Canadian company. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:07:29 And, uh, they, you know, right in the Toronto area. So I went up in, um, visited, uh, for, it was two days. It was a dis, what they call a discovery day. And I remember driving, I drove up there a very pretty drive, uh, through the countryside. And then in Canada is, you know, it was very, very pretty. And, uh, driving back, I, you know, kind of went through all the, the pros and, and the cons. And I said, you know, I gotta really research this a little more. So, um, you know, I did my due diligence for about another two months, and then they, uh, invited me up to, um, corporate
Speaker 1 00:08:14 Office and
Speaker 2 00:08:15 Yeah. And so I did that, and I actually brought a check with me, <laugh>, and, um, and, and, and made the decision then, and it's probably the best decision that I've made in 25 years.
Speaker 1 00:08:30 That's interesting. George, let's, let's just talk about that for a second, because you've had a, you had a successful, uh, uh, career in corporate America, the printing industry. Um, so you've, you've, you've, you've been in the corporate America space, and now over time you've had your own business, you've kind of, you've been working for yourself. And you touched on a couple of things that the, the, the don't or the, the do nots that you don't want when you are looking in researching, uh, business ownership, uh, franchises, when you look at all the do nots that you didn't want, the things that you didn't want, and now operating a business and being in corporate America, and and, and be transparent here is, is the, the, the ability to control your own calendar, that work-life balance, um, a lot of people talk about that getting into their own business. Has that become a critical part of who you are now and how you operate? It's important to you? Uh, you mentioned you didn't wanna report to a C F O or whatever, so it didn't have the quotas, didn't have the X's. So are you, are you able to achieve owning your own business a majority of the things that were important to you?
Speaker 2 00:09:47 Well, I, I, yes. Uh, I think as, as you mature, uh, and life changes, uh, I, I, I'm through with college, uh, loans and Right. And, and all of that, uh, with my children. Um, I, I, I didn't want to just work to live. I wanted to live, I, I, you know, I,
Speaker 1 00:10:18 You're right, you got it
Speaker 2 00:10:20 <laugh> and, uh, and yes, it does,
Speaker 1 00:10:25 You didn't wanna be married to a job. You really, you just wanted, you wanted to have some fun in doing what you were doing, but you wanted to be able to, Hey, let's get out of Dodge. Or, you know, I got an opportunity to do something on a Wednesday, I wanna do this. Whether it's grandkids, um, you know, visiting grandkids and family. And I think the beauty of, uh, the franchise that you're in, schooly Mitchell, and I happen to know the man, the, the brand, very well, a well-oiled machine in operations is, is that, um, you're not confined to an exclusive territory and you have all the support, uh, that you need to be a franchisee in offering those cost reduction services, uh, for corporations, companies,
Speaker 2 00:11:08 Right? That was one of the big selling points. Um, I did not want to have, uh, to hire people to do the back office work that was gonna be required. And a lot of, a lot of the other franchise I had looked at was going to, uh, involve, uh, people. And, uh, you know, I had had a lot of people work for me when I was right. Uh, you know, in sales. I had a sales team under me that we all worked together, and it, it, it's la it's very labor intensive. Um, and I didn't want to have that again. Uh, schooly Mitchell is an opportunity for, uh, you to grow your business cuz they'll support anything that you do in, in, you know, within our, uh, you know, uh, bailiwick. Um, and they're very good at it. Uh,
Speaker 1 00:12:01 So in other words, it's, it's build it as big or as large as you want, and stop or keep it as simplistic as you want, but be comfortable, be successful, and don't find yourself pushing yourself back up against the wall or stressing yourself out. I think that, would that be a, an amicable way of saying it? I mean, you, you really are controlling how, where you want to be and what your goals are.
Speaker 2 00:12:26 Yeah. I would agree with you. You, yes, absolutely. So
Speaker 1 00:12:31 When you look at your process, um, as you started the process, you mentioned, uh, getting, uh, connected with a financial consultant that started to put the pieces together, similar to what I do as far as our franchise consultant. When you, in, in talking to our audience, our, our listeners, if you were going to encourage people who want to investigate and research business ownership, what are some of the things do you think that someone should really be concentrating on? You know, we talk about finding out what your why is taking your skillsets, but in your experience, how should someone really kind of go about this to make a validated decision on whether this is something that they should do or not do?
Speaker 2 00:13:20 Um, I, I think that, uh, franchising and, and I'll use Schooly Mitchell as a, a good example is that it, it offers you an opportunity to, to be successful. Um, there's, uh, training involved, which, uh, any kind of a business, you need to know what, what you're doing in that business. Um, but, uh, there are people that can help you, uh, uh, so that you're not just out there, you know, alone trying to figure out what's my next, uh, you know, plan. Um, I i, does that, does that answer?
Speaker 1 00:14:01 Yeah, no, no. That, that answers the question. So what you're saying to people is, is that what you lack in experience, you have the sales aptitude, but in your case, you have the sales aptitude, but what you lack in experience, schooly Mitchell, brings to the table to help you be successful. So, in other words, in franchising, we call that, that you don't necessarily need to be an expert in the industry, that most franchisors would rather you not have extreme experience, so they can train you and teach you how to be a successful operator of the system. So I think that, that, that's the li the gist of it. When you look at your career, George, over the last 20, 25, 30 years, uh, corporate America, uh, your success within the printing industry, knowing what you know now, and again, I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but it's kind of a question that I like to ask people on the show, if you had a chance to do it all over again, and knowing what you know now, what I call know your no, or get to know your no, do you think this is something that people should, if it, if it's in the back of their mind, thinking about business ownership, that they should explore it, at least take the initiative and the leap to learn more and want to learn more?
Speaker 2 00:15:21 Um, yes, and I don't think that I, I would absolutely do that, and it didn't make any difference whether you're at, uh, 30 years old or 50 years old. Um, if, if you've got the desire to own your own business, franchise is probably one of the, the better ways to do it. Um, starting a business, which I, I I did in the retail end, uh, was, was very difficult. Um, I had never, u never really, uh, thought much about, um, social media when I was selling, printing just wasn't right. It wast applicable to what I was doing, but boy, I had to learn that in the, in the retail business, uh, because that's the way people, uh, found you and, uh, et cetera. I spent an awful lot of time doing that. Um, if you had a, if you were investing in a franchise, that probably is something that they're going to provide to you, right?
Speaker 1 00:16:26 Like, so your focus was on the business, building the business, not on developing the systems to get the business. That's
Speaker 2 00:16:32 Right. That
Speaker 1 00:16:32 Is right. Well, that's a, that's a big thing about franchising, and we call it here at Scott, my franchise coach.com, we call it, um, being a process entrepreneur, somebody who can follow the process, the systems, so that you're not in business developing the systems, you're in business running your business, whereas there's a lot of people out there, not a lot, but there are people, what we call visionary entrepreneurs, and they like putting the pieces to the puzzle together, yet it's a slower growth pattern because you're constantly hiring people or developing the systems. Yes. So, uh, you know, we, we kind of look at that. Um, George Schooly Mitchell, like I said earlier, I've known the brand. It's been around, uh, for a while. Dennis is just a remarkable, uh, individual. He has built a, a well-oiled machine. Tell us a little bit about, maybe take 30 seconds here and tell us a little bit about the services that you're offering, uh, to clients as far as savings. Everybody loves to save money, but I think you and I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago at a chamber event that it's amazing how people wanna save money, but people always find the time, people can never find the time to wanna save money. So you've taken kind of that headache out where you're doing all the work for somebody to be able to find those savings. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2 00:17:57 Well, one of the, one of the objections that you normally get when you're talking to a business person about what we do is, oh, well, we do that already. And I say, oh, that's, that's great. Well, do you have software that's been developed over 10 to 15 years that helps you find the, the most effective cost in for a particular vendor and service that you have? And they look at you and well know? Well, we do, you know, we've, uh, schooly Mitchell has been around for, uh, almost 30 years now. They have, uh, over 30,000 customers. Um, and we've have, you know, the most experience in reducing costs for businesses in all of their, uh, you know, Dale, uh, monthly expenses. And that's something that I've bought into, that's something that I own, that I can offer to my, uh, my, you know, potential client. And, uh, that's something that they can't do. And
Speaker 1 00:19:08 So Schooly Mitchell isn't sitting around and you're not sitting around kind of dialing for dollars and reaching out to vendors and saying, can you, or here's the price. Let's see what we can do. This is a sophisticated approach to cost savings, whether it's, uh, uh, waste removal, whether it's telecommunications, electricity, uh, utility type products. This is a sophisticated approach. Um, and, and, and a, a analytical approach, I guess we can call it quantitative. Uh, you know, there's that quantitative approach to this. Is that a, is that a great way to put it? Uh, you know, as far as offering savings to people,
Speaker 2 00:19:46 Yes. Very, very good. You're hired
Speaker 1 00:19:49 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:19:51 Um,
Speaker 2 00:19:53 Yeah. We, we don't, I don't like to use the word negotiate, and, but the customer will, the, the client, the potential client will say, well, oh, you negotiate. So, no, we don't, we call the vendor, we engage with the vendor, tell them what we are doing. They know who we are, right? They know that we have an awful lot of knowledge about their cost structure, and so they step right up. And, um, we, you know, we get a rewrite of contracts and, and a rewrite of, uh, what, what the customer is paying. And one of the other things that's the great part about this is a lot of consultants come in, spend, you know, a month with you, and then they leave you and they'll hand you a, a, you know, some kind of a, uh, you know, a, a training manual or whatever, right? We stay with you. We we're in an engagement with you for a number of years, and we are looking at your expenses on a constant basis. And if so, there's a, if there's a new, uh, application or if there's a new plan by one of your vendors, we make you aware of that and we, you know, reduce your costs even greater.
Speaker 1 00:21:13 Well, everybody we've been talking to, uh, George d Maro, uh, I am Scotty, my George d Maro is, uh, uh, a franchisee with Schooly Mitchell. He owns his own business, uh, offering cost reduction, uh, services in all aspects. Uh, whether it's utilities, engineering, transportation, uh, really kind of anything, uh, that if a company's looking to, uh, you know, approach or look and see if there's, uh, some savings, uh, you're, this is all things considered franchising, and we've been focusing on, uh, franchise opportunities and helping people research and explore, uh, business ownership. George, when you, when, when you look back over the last 25, 30 years, I think you mentioned that, you know, maybe sometimes you sleep at night and say, maybe I should have done this, uh, a little bit earlier. But, um, and you've encouraged people that have been thinking about business ownership to go out and kind of pick up the phone, whether it's calling someone like myself or a consultant, uh, you know, another consultant in regards to researching. But if you are gonna pick those one or two questions that someone should be asking, and again, everybody wants to know how much money I can make and, uh, I think the validation, but what are those one or two questions that, uh, in your opinion that people, when they're asking themselves on whether I should or shouldn't do this, that they should be asking?
Speaker 2 00:22:38 Uh, it, it's gotta work for you. I think you, you've gotta, you know, visualize yourself in the position of running this business. Um, the money will come, uh, the franchises are, uh, are pretty, most of the ones that I've talked to, they were pretty upfront telling you what they were going to, you know, that what you should expect, right? Um, and, uh, and I would definitely use a consultant. Uh, it, it's no cost to you. Um, uh, you, you know, you don't pay them and, uh, they help you in the process and they think of things that you, quite frankly, you, you, you don't think about when you're taking this step, right?
Speaker 1 00:23:23 Right.
Speaker 2 00:23:23 Um, and one, you know, one of the, the things that really, um, convinced me was how well oiled the schooly Mitchell machine was, right? Uh, they've had great experience. They've got, um, you know, a number of people that have made, uh, you know, uh, millions of dollars, uh, in owning a franchise.
Speaker 1 00:23:46 Interesting. And it's okay to be nervous, right? I mean, uh, you should have a little nerve nervous nervousness in you. I mean, I, I always believe that being nervous triggers a lot more questions and wanting to know more. So, uh, that's great. Well, this has been Scotty, my George. What is the best way for someone to get contact you if they're interested in learning more about the, uh, cost reduction services that you offer?
Speaker 2 00:24:10 Well, um, we're gonna provide a, uh, an address and a, uh, email and telephone number. Uh, please call me. Uh, the, uh, conversation will, will be, you know, very easy. Uh, I really recommend that we get together for 15 to 20 minutes, and I can definitely tell whether we can help you or not. And if we can't help you, I'm not gonna waste your time or my time. And the audits are free, so you don't pay any upfront costs, and we get our fee from the savings, right? Right. So it's really a, uh, it's found money for the business, and, uh, I think you'll, uh, it, it will be a great experience and you'll save money.
Speaker 1 00:25:03 Great. Great, George. Well, we really appreciate your time. Uh, we hope to get you back, uh, maybe, uh, soon. And, uh, you can tell us about all your successes that you're helping and maybe give us some examples and stories of the savings that you've been offered, uh, been offering companies or being able to find for companies. Um, I'm Scotty, my Scott, my franchise coach.com. All things considered franchising. All Things Considered franchising is a podcast devoted to the entrepreneur, helping people research and explore opportunities. Scott, my franchise coach.com. Until next time, this is Scotty, my, have a great day.
