Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hello, everybody. Scotty, my here. All Things Considered Franchising, powered by Scott, my franchise coach.com. All Things Considered franchising is a podcast devoted to the franchising industry, entrepreneurship, and business ownership. Uh, Scott, my franchise coach, is an organization that helps people research and explore business ownership, exploring franchise opportunities, and comparing them to independent options. Today's guest, Jeff Hughes, president and founder of Skilled Samurai. Jeff, great to be here. Great to have you.
Speaker 2 00:00:41 Likewise. I'd say it's good to see you again. It's been, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:00:44 It's been a
Speaker 2 00:00:44 While since before the pandemic, so, yes.
Speaker 1 00:00:47 Yeah. Yes. You know, uh, Jeff, you, and one of the reasons I wanted to have you on my, uh, on the podcast is for two reasons. One, you're in that category of an emerging brand, and I always have found emerging brands to be fascinating, because when you think about franchises, and again, I say this probably nine outta 10 times on my podcast, on every podcast, there's a lot more to McDonald's and the $5 foot log. But those brands at one point were emerging brands. I mean, let's face it, they had to have their first franchisee, they had to have their second, they had to have their hundredth and so on. So your story in the franchising as an emerging brand has becoming well known. Um, it, it's a brand that's getting a lot of attention and recognition, but also as an individual, your passion for education, coding, and STEM education. And for those of you who may not be familiar with the stem, uh, uh, the stem, uh, meaning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, because as we all know, and we're hearing it every day in order to compete in today's society, science, technology, engineering, mathematics are very important. Teaching our young kids the importance, not so much kicking a soccer ball, but mathematics, engineering, science, and technology. So, so welcome on, Jeff. Good to have you.
Speaker 2 00:02:08 Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 00:02:11 Let's start out by talking about a little bit about the brand. So why don't you take 60 seconds, kind of give us an idea of, you know, what got you into this, or how you got into the category, uh, your passion and, uh, you know, waking up one morning and deciding, Hey, look, I'm gonna franchise this and bring it to the United States.
Speaker 2 00:02:30 Yeah. So, uh, when I look back on my life, I really can see, uh, one of my driving forces has been, uh, empowering people through education, um, and seeing the ability of education, uh, to change people's lives. And through that, um, change generations like, change their children's lives. Um, I've mentioned before that, um, my mom was illiterate. She was an immigrant to Canada. Um, and when I began in kindergarten, I began teaching her how to read. Uh, so she learned how to read as I was, um, and, you know, through that, seeing the changes that it made in her life, being able to get a job. Um, and then in particular in stem, I was, um, you know, I went to my kid's school one day, and at the time they had 350 kids and three computers. Wow. And I compared that, it seems shocking now.
Speaker 2 00:03:28 Um, I think at the time, Estonia had comprehensive computer science from kindergarten all the way through high school. And I thought, you know, how are my kids going to get in the future? Um, how is this country, how is the US going to be able to be competitive if, um, if our kids don't have the same skillsets that everyone else does? So my, um, one of my business goals was to start a franchisable company. So at the time, I was working for, uh, a, a, a company that was franchised as a franchise coach. So I was already kind of in that, and I presented my idea to them mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and then they really helped mentor me for the first three years in the design, the development of the franchise model, uh, training, uh, things like that. So it was really, um, the idea came first to franchise, and then I needed to find the right, um, business to do it.
Speaker 1 00:04:23 When you look at the profile of your organization and, uh, the, the STEM education category, I wouldn't call it a crowded field, but it's a competitive field. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and I've always been a believer that, um, competition is good, but in some cases you either gotta be a little bit uniquely different or better than the people that are in the category. Right. So, when you look at your organization and how you approached this, when you were decided to franchise it and build a franchise system, a franchise become a franchisor, what was your focus to be a little bit different than what was already out there?
Speaker 2 00:05:06 Yeah, that's a good question. So we, um, one thing we did was we took coding out of our name, and we took kids out of our name, which signs sounds kind of odd, but our focus is really in that belief, the belief that in the future there will always be a gap between what schools can teach and what employers are looking for. So in that gap, are the skills that we're going to teach. And at the moment, that is heavily computer science and coding. I don't know what that's going to be in 10 years, but I know there will be a gap. So that's the first focus. So our, um, our owners aren't stuck teaching kids coding 10 years from now, if that's no longer needed.
Speaker 1 00:05:48 Great. And, uh, no, and no, go on. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 00:05:51 Yeah, that's okay. And the second part is, um, we really focus on preparing kids for future careers that our focus is on, Hey, kids coding is fun. It's get them using real professional tools so that they're ready for jobs, uh, when they graduate from high school.
Speaker 1 00:06:10 When parents look at STEM education, coding, um, you know, sometimes parents will say, and I know being a parent and now grandkids, uh, you know, my, my my daughter or son is six years old, seven years old, they're still trying to figure out what direction they want to go in. They really enjoy kicking the soccer ball or playing in little league. How important is the, the science technology, engineering, mathematics to the future of those children as they start to get older and enter what I call the real world? Right. I mean, it, it are, are are parents sometimes, and again, this isn't a knock on today's parents, but are we being blind to what the world or the, where the world is and the direction the world's going to, uh, is this, should this be an important part of the curriculum, uh, with, with children today?
Speaker 2 00:07:07 Yeah. A couple years ago, we sent her flyers home outta school. One of the girls was five years old, her name was Olivia. She brought it home to her mom and said, mom, I'm five years old and I don't know how to code yet. She, um, got her parents to sign her up, and she was with us for like the next five years. Um, I've s I've heard it said that 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030. So seven years don't exist yet. So all these kids that are in school presently, you know, my youngest is now in a freshman in high school, so looking ahead seven years, uh, she'll be graduating from college. Um, we don't know what jobs she's gonna be graduating into. So by introducing kids at a young age to computer science and giving them, um, a spark to learn more, that helps. It also improves their confidence. So they learn one language, they will feel confident to learn more, and the, the, the earlier they're exposed to it in a positive way, the more likely they are to, uh, keep taking it through high school and college.
Speaker 1 00:08:15 Great. Um, I never graduated college. I was just never that college kind of guy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I was, I always tell people I was the kind of guy that if I put my hand on the stove, it was hot. I know. Not to put my hand on the stat, uh, stove. Um, again, you know, there's been a lot of talk and chitter chatter about the ne necessity of college education mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and sometimes people look at coding STEM education as a gateway to college or a benefit to being college. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but let's flip it for a second. Is this, and there's been a lot of talk recently, and again, that chitter chatter about trade, trade school Yep. Trade. Can stem education and coding be tied into a trade? Is this necessarily, well, if I'm gonna send my my kids to your school, you know, they're gonna go to college? Or is it more of I wanna educate my kids, so maybe they can, you know, take this and be anything, maybe they can take it to, you know, any type of trade. I mean mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you follow what I'm trying to get at here? I mean, is it, I I, people always seem to associate this with college education or future of college education,
Speaker 2 00:09:28 Right? Yeah. We, in a lot of our material, we present this as an alternative to college. So, um, recently Google, Tesla, uh, Netflix, Amazon have all said that you don't need a college degree to work for them. They are looking for experience and a set of, uh, credentials. So when we are preparing students through high school, by the time they graduate, they would have four years of experience programming, and then they can also earn the certification for Amazon or Google, um, ideally to make them career ready, get an entry level job, uh, which pays really well, uh, and skip college. So for some families, some students, that's really the way they'd want to go. Right. Um, other jobs, we're still stuck going to college. Um, so we presented as, Hey, this is, this could really enhance your resume, your application for college, or it could allow you to get jobs without going to college.
Speaker 1 00:10:28 Great. Great. Um, let's shift gears a little bit in the type of franchisees that you're looking for for the organization mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, if I was having a general conversation with a client of mine and, uh, you know, kind of connecting the dots and helping them look into certain categories, where do you see, where is that best fit franchisee for your organization? Where, where is it? Um, you know, what are some of the qualify, not so much qualifications, because people have a tendency to think qualifications is quantitative. And I don't think it's necessarily the case, but that's how people look at qualifications. But what are the characteristics of somebody that is, that would be interested or you see as a, a, a, a benefit or a credential, uh, that would be interested in your organization?
Speaker 2 00:11:20 I think 60% of our new owners from last year, uh, came from education. Um, most of 'em were teachers. One of them was a vice pre vice-principal. Um, all of them had a spouse who was in finance or technology. So they're coming at it saying, Hey, you know what? I get to teach on my terms. I'm not teaching for a district, or it's part of a school. Um, and they have a value in education and specifically in stem. So that was really interesting to see. Prior to that, um, it was a lot of people with a technology background, right? And they are looking for a second revenue stream. Maybe they're looking towards retirement. Uh, we all know with, um, with the pandemic that there was a lot of job uncertainty. So people who before thought they had kind of a job for life are now thinking, well, let's do something in my field that, um, could take care of my family if something happens to my job. And teaching technology seems like a good fit. So those would be the, the two main groups. And then the third group is, um, is more of that investor who is buying it to, to buy three of them and have a manager over all three of them. Okay. So the, the teacher, the IT person or the investor.
Speaker 1 00:12:40 So it, there is this semi, what we call in the industry, that semi absentee role.
Speaker 2 00:12:45 Um,
Speaker 1 00:12:46 Right. Again, I, I've always said that, let's be careful with semi absentee because you don't want to invest all, you know, considerable amount of money into something and then just hand the keys over to somebody else. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But the programs that your schools are offering, and we talk about teachers because teachers are typically, you know, eight in the morning until three in the afternoon, you know, depending on the grade level. Right. Is this something a teacher could do because it's after school programs? Uh, or is it before school? I mean, you know, when a teacher, you know, sometimes teachers look for different avenues. Revenue drivers. Um, is, is this something a teacher or a professor because of the flexibility, they only work from eight to three, it's a hard job. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> eight to three, but um, you know, and then maybe have the summers off, there's a vacations. Is that a consideration as well?
Speaker 2 00:13:37 Yeah, definitely. So our programs do typically run from, uh, four till eight, Monday to Friday, uh, Saturday mornings and then through the summer. So it would definitely work with that role. When we talk about, um, who they're hiring, we, we refer to them as coaches. Uh, 98% of our content, our curriculum is self-directed. So we hire first and second year university students, seniors in high school, um, to just kind of be there to cheer on and support the students. Uh, but there's very little upfront teaching. So the role of the owner is really one of, um, network marketing, building a network in their city, uh, talking to principals, talking to school officials, and, uh, getting more students. Some of them teach because they want to, they'll teach a class or two, but for the most part, like a lot of businesses, we want them growing their business, not just Right. Being in their teaching.
Speaker 1 00:14:33 Yeah. You don't want 'em buy, you don't want 'em behind the grill. Flipping burgers. You
Speaker 2 00:14:36 Want them. Exactly. <laugh>. Yep.
Speaker 1 00:14:38 That's the way we,
Speaker 2 00:14:39 Once you're there, it's hard. Yeah. Yeah. That happened to me. I, you know, my first business was a pizza restaurant. Um, and when I got to the spot where I had to be making pizzas 60 hours a week, instead of growing the business, I, it was all downhill cuz I just bought a really expensive job.
Speaker 1 00:14:54 Yeah. No, that, that's good. And of course, your industry, uh, you know, the services and the industry that you're in, uh, education obviously plays an integral part in giving back to the community, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, that's that, that, that I would think that there has to be that charitable side to someone giving back, because that's an important part to the networking side of growing the business. Uh, is that accurate?
Speaker 2 00:15:16 Yeah, yeah. We do encourage that locally. Uh, you know, they'll volunteer at Boys and Girls Club or different, uh, community groups in their city. They're the probably people that will never be their customer, but they still, uh, really need this kind of content. Uh, and then we do that globally as well. So in September we built our first orphanage in India, and we, so there are 12, 12 boys living there. We also sponsor 12 children in a safe house in a, in Nairobi. So they are getting kind of informal education, um, on the path to preparation for more formal education. Uh, we also sponsor other projects like teaching women business and sewing skills in Bangladesh, um, globally. Again, with that idea of empowering people through education, that is something that, um, that I take to heart personally. Um, and we want our owners to, to do that locally where wherever they can.
Speaker 1 00:16:16 Great. Let's switch gears a little bit and, uh, talk about Sure. Talk about, uh, some of our listeners maybe, uh, sitting in a seat that you used to sit in, uh, you know, having an idea or have a business and they're thinking about franchising it or have been, you know, uh, approached about why don't you franchise your business mm-hmm. <affirmative> versus, uh, staying as an independent and growing it, um, yourself, uh, kind of those independent, uh, independent shops versus a franchise. Um, what drew you to franchising as an industry and taking that route versus saying, Hey, I'm gonna do this on my own and, and, and, and kind of have that independent, uh, uh, that independent, uh, direction.
Speaker 2 00:17:04 Yeah. So during our first three summers when we were running campus, we went from, uh, three cities to six cities to 13 cities. And at every stop my wife would say, you know, why are you, why are you doing this? Why aren't you just happy right here? Um, and then one of my switch after I tested it in 13 cities to then selling franchises again, like, why are you just not happy running these 13 cities? And A, that wasn't the plan, but b and probably more importantly, um, I can't be in those cities sharing my passion for computer science. I can't be there talking to the principals and networking. So in this role, it, since it requires, uh, or benefits so much from conversations, it really made sense to have committed people in different cities with that same passion, uh, who could grow the vision and expand it. So it, it really, um, it, it wouldn't spread and the message wouldn't have spread as well if it was just me from my office.
Speaker 1 00:18:06 Great. So if you were giving somebody some advice who's thinking about franchising their business, let's forget about the category mm-hmm. <affirmative> or anything or whatever, but what are maybe one or two things that they should be asking in themselves or researching or education themselves, educating themselves on about franchising their business? What I mean with your experience, I mean, look, this is an easy franchising a business, I mean mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, uh, obviously the, the end game is a lot more financially rewarding the exit strategy than if you had an in couple of independent business, I mean, to Right. To get the financial side on the royalties, the earnings on the royalties, the payout, uh, whether it's private equity or whatever it may be, versus independence. I mean, that, that's a whole separate conversation, but it's a lot higher mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But what are some, what are the one or two things, like I said, if somebody was thinking about franchising their business, they had a couple of locations open, what, what would you say are the first two important things or things that they really should look at first?
Speaker 2 00:19:10 Yeah. I would, I would say, can the business run without them? So if it's one location or a couple, can it be done without them doing all the daily tasks? So that would require them to make sure that they have systems set up a revenue system, staffing system, um, have all those systems in place. Um, they won't be as good as they'll need to be. I find that out like every six months as we add more people, we need to reinforce those systems. Um, but the business needs to be able to run without them there. So, um, can it, can it do well with a different owner an a semi absentee owner? So how can they test that? So if they're running it in another city, uh, could they train that person and be more hands off? Um, really, cuz that's important to know, like, no one is buying a business to buy a job. Right. Um, so first can they replace themselves out of their business? Uh, cuz you, I also think you can't both sell franchises and run your local business. So you first need to replace yourself, see if it's profitable functioning, um, and then get other people to buy in.
Speaker 1 00:20:23 Interesting. I, I would also seem to think that being able to duplicate the systems mm-hmm. <affirmative> from one location to another is important. That operational side, it's, uh, you know, there may be, there may be a a, a number of moving parts, but you want to be able to duplicate them. And I, I don't like to use the word easy, but be able to manage those systems. So if, if somebody coming in like myself wanted to be a franchisee, I could take that manual and run with those systems mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and duplicate where you've been successful on your own. Correct.
Speaker 2 00:20:59 Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's a, a big part of it is, um, someone told me before, like, write down everything you're doing because someone else will need to know how to do that. Uh, and of course I didn't do that right away, so I'm still writing down things like, Hey Jeff, how do you run a birthday party? Write that all down so that people can see that. Um, but yeah, having the systems, having it written down, uh, so that people can easily follow it as a guide to have the same success, uh, you are having.
Speaker 1 00:21:27 Great, great. Um, the, the amount of time or there, there are important things in life. I mean, family comes into play, um, work-life balance, um, I think your organization brand gives a lot of options for work-life balance. It's not necessarily, like you said, a, a restaurant or a business that requires seven days of operation, 16 hours a day. Um, when you look at the work-life balance, and again, you did this on your own, you came outta corporate America, so to speak, that listener right now that's thinking about exiting corporate America, uh, or, you know, maybe taking a, an independent store that they have and turning it into a franchise, how important is it to stay on track on that work-life balance and to keep your family involved or, you know, focus in on the important things of, uh, in, in life?
Speaker 2 00:22:30 Yeah, it's, I I'd say it's number one. So when I started, I was up every morning working from five until seven, then my kids would get up, I'd be with them, they'd go to school at eight, I would work until five, and then I made sure I was with them every evening for supper. So from five till eight, um, back then I went to bed at eight and then I, most nights I'd put in a couple more hours. Um, it was what, what it required. Um, not doing that as much now, but really, um, having that time every night with my family was critical. Um, you know, nine years ago they were how old?
Speaker 1 00:23:10 Uh, scary. Huh?
Speaker 2 00:23:12 I know. It was like five, seven, and nine. So, um, yeah, it was really, really important for me and for my wife to be there. Again, having had a restaurant where I was working way too much. Um, and then the best part was being on vacation. Um, and being with my family, camping and realizing that I had camps running in 13 cities with staff, running them, um, making me money. And I was, I was at the beach. Um, so you do need to do, do the work. You'll, you'll get the benefits of being an entrepreneur if you put in all of the work of being an entrepreneur. Um, and some days there just isn't that balance. I think I heard a teaching once about, um, you know, we all talk about juggling balls and an entrepreneur, a family person needs to decide some days which balls he is going to drop. Cuz you just can't, you can't jump at 'em all, all the time. Right. So, and if I'm gonna drop something, it's gonna be on the business side even now. Um, and, and keep the family sides, that's great in my hands.
Speaker 1 00:24:16 Great. Well, we're running outta time here, but, um, when you look at the vision of your, uh, of your organization's skills, samurai, and let's flash forward 3, 4, 5 years from now, um, w what do you see? I mean, uh, uh, uh, obviously you're looking to grow the brand mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you're looking to be national. Uh, you're already international because I believe you're in, uh, Singapore or Australia and Canada, um, as well as in the us but what's, where do you see yourself the brand in 3, 4, 5 years still gonna be involved in it, really looking to build it?
Speaker 2 00:24:52 Yeah, we are, um, even now we are, um, in talks with lots of partners, but, um, increasing our revenue streams and our, our curriculum pathways. Um, so right now in stem we do, we're really strong on science, technology and engineering. Uh, nothing on math. So, you know, depending on when, when this airs, uh, sometime in March we'll be launching a comprehensive math curriculum. Um, interesting. So, because a lot of times it's the same parents so that they're, they're looking to enrich their child's grades, improve their grades, um, so, so the parents looking for math are often looking for coding as well. Um, so that will be a kindergarten through grade six program. Um, and that's another revenue stream for our owners. Um, and then just, yeah, we really, the goal is to be the, the largest enrichment education provider. So we're doing that, you know, one franchise at a time at this point.
Speaker 1 00:25:53 Great. Um, the best way for somebody to get ahold of you, if they wanted to learn more about Skills Samurai, I mean, is there, uh, an email out? You wanna share a website? Sure,
Speaker 2 00:26:03 Yeah. The website is skills samurai.com and they can email me, uh, jeff skills samy.com.
Speaker 1 00:26:10 Great. Great. Obviously they can also reach out to me, Scott, my Scottie, my scott, my franchise coach.com, uh, visit my website also Scott, my franchise coach.com. Jeff, I thorough, enjoyed our conversation. I hope we can, you know, 12, 14, 15 months from now, we can get you back and have another perspective of what's going on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but we thoroughly enjoyed the, uh, uh, the conversation. Any closing, anything you'd like to say or we forgot to ask you?
Speaker 2 00:26:36 No, Scott <laugh>. No. I appreciate your time today. It was a lot of fun. Great.
Speaker 1 00:26:40 Great. Well, everybody, this is Scotty Myas, all Things Considered Franchising, powered by Scott, my franchise coach.com. Thank you for listening. Make it a great day.
