Right About Now with Ryan Alford - From Donuts to Dollars: Exploring the Franchise Kingdom with Lance Graulich

Starting point is 00:00:00 Ryan, thanks for having me, my friend. Hey, you ready to serve court here or what? Absolutely. Can't wait. Let's get radical. I know. I ain't no pawn, but I'll be your host. I got all the kings, queens, and you name them.

Starting point is 00:00:17 I got all the analogies here for... Love it. I just love the... Look, I'm a marketer, right? This is a marketing and business show. I like anybody that's got a title. Sometimes they come in and it's, look, you're, I'm a marketer, right? This is a marketing and business show. I like anybody that's got a title. Sometimes they come in and it's, look, you're the CEO of Ion Franchising. A buddy of mine sent me.

Starting point is 00:00:30 How does one become the king? I was just going to tell you. A buddy of mine, I've been in it 30 years plus. And a buddy of mine, he calls me and he sends me so much business. People that want to set up a franchise system and grow and scale across the U.S., across the world, for that matter, with franchising. And then he's the same guy that sends me families from family offices to people that have 30 grand. So Lance will help you. He'll figure out what franchise is best for you.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Gets paid some nice referral fees. So he'll text me things like, King, I got something for you. I'm going to shoot you a text. I got a referral. Lucky me. It's a good friend to have. I like friends that send me business and that I like. Who says you can't mix business with pleasure? Absolutely. Now, those are my favorite friends. Cool, man. I know you were born in Brooklyn. We talked pre-episode a little bit. Born in Brooklyn, now in Vegas. You've been all over the map. You got coast to coast there. I love it. West Coast is a little cleaner where I am.

Starting point is 00:01:36 Yeah, no kidding. How was it growing up in Brooklyn? I was only in Brooklyn until I was seven and we moved to Long Island, but we went back and forth to Brooklyn to see other relatives for years. Brooklyn was super cool. But like a lot of older cities, as it goes through that sort of evolution over a period of time where, you know, new development, redevelopment and everything like that, new zoning efforts and what have you. But Brooklyn's still hot today. Oh, it's super hot today. But look, I know maybe for you it seemed like different countries, but you jump on the train, you get to Long Island. Come on now, it wasn't that far from Brooklyn.

Starting point is 00:02:12 Nope. Maybe a bit different, not being like the direct borough of right there, but what was it like on Long Island? It was awesome having access to everything. I think a lot of us, Vegas just started getting into professional sports. Growing up in New York was fantastic. Long Island, we had our professional sports, not very good teams these days, but Mets, Jets, whatever, Long Island, the Islanders, hockey, but great sports town, great restaurants, great entertainment,

Starting point is 00:02:45 but a great sports town, great restaurants, great entertainment, just a great city. Even like Vegas, we could drive to the Strip from the suburbs where I live in 15, 20 minutes. Same thing with Manhattan from Long Island. We were on the South Shore. We can get to Manhattan and well, depending on traffic as quick as 30 minutes or we take the train. Yep. That's right. I lived in Manhattan for six years, my friend, and the height of my ad career. So I know it. I took the train. I went to Long Island. I go take a break, get on the beach, baby.

Starting point is 00:03:11 And go up there. And I know the boroughs, the trains, all that stuff. Cutting my teeth in the big city. But let's talk about the journey to the throne, my friend. How does one, let's set the table for Lance's story and the growth that led you into franchising. People always ask, how does somebody become an entrepreneur? Are you born with that talent? Is it some lab accident gone wrong?

Starting point is 00:03:39 Some environmental thing? Sound like Spider-Man? The reality is I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. And growing up in an entrepreneurial family, there was no chance that I would be employed for any length of time. My dad coined the phrase early. He said, Lance is absolutely unemployable. But I gave it my best shot. I actually worked for dad's company on Wall Street. But then I realized there's greener pastures. I had another relative that dangled the carrot and said, why don't you come out to see me in Arizona and Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, live near Mummy Mountain. And we built a TGI Fridays franchise back in 89,

Starting point is 00:04:18 it started. And five years later, we're doing 225 million a year. So this franchise thing is pretty damn cool. Someone else created a roadmap, did the work, blueprint, if you will, model success, right? Modeling success. That's all a franchise is. And I said, this is pretty cool. So eventually I did my own. I left Uncle Steven after five years. I was still in Arizona.

Starting point is 00:04:43 Went back to Vegas where he had some interests and I spent some time. Former New Yorker, Vegas is my style, at least at the time. A lot of food and entertainment. A little bit crazy back in the day when I first hit Vegas. And I started doing my own thing. I became a franchisee of Wingstop in the early days. Krispy Kreme Donuts in multiple states. My partner and I did.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Became a top 1% franchisee, which was great. I didn't know I'd be a top 1% franchisee. I don't know. I knew I'd be above average, but apparently I was pretty good. And I eventually created a now famous brand out of Vegas called Pink Box Donuts, which some people think I'm pretty famous for, but I'm a builder. I'm not really a maintainer. I love putting things together, creating it, hiring people, which seems to be such a task these days. I think I've mastered that after making every mistake under the sun for the first couple of years. And so I love the world

Starting point is 00:05:43 of franchising. And instead of retiring, I had a family friend that did well and said to me one day, put yourself in a financial position to retire and don't. And I took that to heart. And I realized to retire is probably to die early. And so I put myself in a position as a franchise broker. Friends of mine gave me that idea. I didn't know what a franchise broker was. Represent over 800 brands in every industry. And I'm like a recruiter. I get paid by the brand. The actual client doesn't pay me. I fell into that. I could be anywhere at any time talking to people about franchising. We're in Mexico recently, be anywhere at any time talking to people about franchising. We were in Mexico recently,

Starting point is 00:06:29 having conversations with people. And these clients that either hear me on a podcast, hear me on my podcast, however they find me, they always apologize. Oh, you're on vacation. I said, no, I'm always on vacation. This is what I do for a living. I'm living my best life. I want you to live your best life and find you the best brand, whether you're keeping your job and doing a franchise on the side, whether you want to jump into something full-time, but I absolutely love, love, love what I do, truly changing people's lives. Hey, that's what it's all about. Like a lot of people think at a certain point, I kind of use the analogy of eating. You can only eat so much, but it gets fun to feed others, right? That's the joy of life.

Starting point is 00:07:13 And it's always like when you're hungry, it's hard to think about it that way. But the truth is when you get blessed and you do a lot, it's how can you help others? Because the joy really does come from that, which is what I'm sensing from you. I absolutely love giving back. I do incredibly well doing what I do, whether I'm finding somebody a business or I'm setting up an independent business so they can franchise through my partners. We do a lot of franchise setup as well, but it's truly everything franchising. And look, over the years, I as well. But it's truly everything franchising. And

Starting point is 00:07:45 look, over the years, I realized most people don't know much about franchising. They tend to discard franchising. I'm just going to go find an existing business to buy. And I always say, how much time you got? Isn't time your most precious commodity? And people are like, yeah, most precious commodity. And people are like, yeah, can't I just find an existing business? Pretty damn competitive. And finding a franchise, you just jump in pretty quickly and save yourself time because you have a whole team supporting you. We can continue on that. Yeah, I know. I think let's go down that road in the education of our audience. And we have 101 201 and 301 here we'll start with the basics i do think i'll come to the studio we'll do it perfectly exactly we'll do that we'll do part two in the studio here at g vegas also known as greenville south carolina the uh i think

Starting point is 00:08:42 there's i see we we are G Vegas. Vegas, this was meant to be. They do call Greenville G Vegas, those locals. And it's nothing like Vegas. And it's the charming, one of the fastest, small cities, growing small cities in America. But the food might par Vegas, maybe. That might be the only thing. Everything else, the entertainment's a little different.

Starting point is 00:09:04 And unfortunately, no gambling. As a gambler, a mild gambler, I love coming to Vegas for that. But I digress. Let's talk about franchising. So, Lance, I think you summed it up perfectly with the blueprint, the roadmap. People worked their whole lives to find the success secrets, the roadmap to freedom, the roadmap or the idea. Not everyone's an idea person. Like, what's the idea? How do I find, how do I, why is he so success? People just don't have that naturally,

Starting point is 00:09:40 but that's what franchises unlock, right? Yes. I tell people all the time, if you don't have your own original idea that needs to be born, go for a franchise because you're going to be in business for yourself, but not by yourself. You're going to have people training you and mentoring you and making sure you're successful. And then you have the collaboration of the brain trust, so to speak, the franchisees that are doing this. I have a garage door brand, a guy just exited, a franchisee just exited for almost $100 million. So if you were a new franchisee, you tap into that knowledge to understand, man, I want to get to a million in my first year or more.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Let me reach out to a couple of franchisees. I was president of the Franchise Advisory Council for Wingstop. So I would coach and assist the training team in helping people get open and helping people be successful and sharing best practices. What's the sum total of anybody's success? Look around you. isn't it like the five people closest to you at all times so that's what franchising that's what franchising is the question though is based on your skill set where do your skills transfer what is the best business industry for you? And those are the things that I tee up with people on a regular basis. Most people end up with a franchise they never expected they getting

Starting point is 00:11:13 involved with. They had no idea. Buddy of mine, he's bald. He's bald and he can't cut hair, yet he owns 19 Great Clips hair salons. He nets a million and a half bucks a year, last I checked. Most people successful in franchising have no passion for that industry that they're currently in. Remember in the old days, people were passionate about kids. They'd open a daycare, they'd become a teacher, something like that. Passion is not exactly the same. Passion's the same. That's what your heart tells you should do.

Starting point is 00:11:59 But the goal is to spend the least amount of time doing the things you don't like today. That's the truth. And franchises can get you the income you need and get you that time with your family to spend doing what you want to do. Yes, I love that last part. I sit on my own throne on social media, getting on my soapbox throne. We're talking about because all these gurus on social media telling people young and old follow your passion to riches and fame like it's just bullshit because you get passionate about what you're good at or you get passionate about what you said buys you more time to do the things that you want to do and so so I can get behind all that. I do think for a lot of people that, and even me, so educate me.

Starting point is 00:12:52 I think my, not hesitation, because I don't know that I've ever been in a position where I was even considering a franchise, but I might would. What, I think there's this notion that a franchisee gets locked in back to buying time. They're buried in the franchise themselves. No. Is that just a matter of the people that don't choose the right partners, like operating partners or whatever? Absolutely. And it's such a great question you ask, Ryan, because there are brands. I mentioned Great Clips Air Salons, Great Clips, Chick-fil-A, to name a few. You have to be a full-time owner operator in those businesses. Great Clips hair salons, Great Clips, Chick-fil-A, to name a few, you have to be a full-time owner operator in those businesses. Great Clips, you don't even know how to cut hair, but they want an owner to be active in the business. Chick-fil-A, they want to make sure that you

Starting point is 00:13:37 are not doing anything else. You essentially have to divert to divest yourself of everything else. They want you really in that business all the time. So the reality is I focus more on amazing brands which have a track record of success. And every brand produces what's called a franchise disclosure document. Franchising is regulated by the federal government, Federal Trade Commission. And in each franchise disclosure document, there's a lot of information that's incredibly helpful for you to make that decision, including earnings claims that shows like my favorite air conditioning franchise, the average franchisee is doing close to $3 million these days. So I had a guy come to me

Starting point is 00:14:22 recently, Ryan, that owned an air conditioning company that barely did $800,000 a year, and it took him nine years to get to that. And his first question was, why would I do a franchise? He said, because it took you nine years to get to the sales you're at now. And with a franchise, you would have been there in a year, probably a year, maybe less. And you'd be quadrupling your revenue at this point or more by paying a little royalty. Who cares? This is like a marriage. People that tell me, ah, franchising isn't right for me. I don't want to be locked in. Aren't you married? Yeah. You're pretty locked in, buddy. How'd you make that decision? So some people, Ryan, get stuck. They just get stuck.

Starting point is 00:15:08 And we've heard of growth mindset versus fixed mindset. I do a lot of mindset work on people. I just got off the phone with an anesthesiologist before this. An anesthesiologist, his wife is a doctor as well, who just takes care of the kids now. She's essentially retired. His wife is a doctor as well, who just takes care of the kids now. She's essentially retired. And it's hard to get people out of whatever the baggage they brought with them.

Starting point is 00:15:32 I have to get a job. I have to earn an income. And maybe I should buy some rental properties. Rental properties are great. Someone still has to manage them. Got to pay them a fee. So in a franchise, you just have to pick the right one. My first marriage sucked. I screwed up. I picked the wrong one. Now I have the best wife ever. I overmarried. I outkicked my coverage, whatever you want to call it. I did it right this time.

Starting point is 00:16:02 Hey, we got that in common. I did it wrong the first time myself and definitely got it right the second time. It's fun. You live and you learn, right? Absolutely. So pick, I talked to a guy once that wasn't sure he wanted a franchise and he said he'll never get married. I said, dude, guess what? Franchise probably isn't for you if you're telling me you will never get married. I said, dude, guess what? Franchise probably isn't for you if you're telling me you will never get married. And he was never married before. Franchise is a relationship. You get, there is a process. You know, the old expression, trust the process. I introduce you to brands after a lengthy interview. I have a free assessment on my website we could talk about later. after a lengthy interview. I have a free assessment on my website we could talk about later.

Starting point is 00:16:51 That helps me understand about you. And then I start throwing brands at you a few at a time, let you digest them, assimilate them. It is going to be like drinking out of a fire hose. And at some point you say, you know what? That sounds interesting. And I introduce people to that brand and they start going through the process like a date. It's like a first date with the brand. You have a coffee date, right? And then it gets more serious. And the meet the parents part is when you meet the corporate folks, corporate executive team. You have to like each other. And then at some point, my favorite part of the process that a lot of people do not know, obviously, if you've never investigated franchises, it's called validation. Every great brand of mine is going to have a great validation process where you get to talk to existing franchisees about their experience

Starting point is 00:17:39 and know, man, this is the brand for me. Or you run at that point and say, that's it. I'm done. Let's move on to the next one. So there's a process. You just have to trust it. Yeah. Lance, what's your feelings of shared franchise ownerships when you have multiple partners coming to the table?

Starting point is 00:18:03 Yeah. How does that evaluation differ? And what's your thought process? Are success rates of multi-owner franchises, franchisees versus single and those kinds of things? There's no doubt. I don't want to judge anybody's relationships or bromances and what have you, depending on who these partners are. But let me tell you, I screwed up partnerships as good as anybody. And my attorney in one of the lawsuits in the early days said, yeah, you're making money. That's why the fight is so intense. If you weren't making any money,

Starting point is 00:18:37 there wouldn't be that fight. So I can tell you all, and I warn people all the time on partnerships. Clearly there has to be a great operating agreement in place that really lays out the roles and responsibilities of all the partners. Partnerships can be fantastic to pool resources and leverage assets, obviously, of course. So it can be done, of course. Now, what I always tell people is when I'm talking to just one individual and I know that individual is married, I try to get the spouse involved. And it's two people that really think as one because they're already a united partnership being in marriage. When I have two partners that come to me, really to answer your question, Ryan, it's that much harder because if there's two spouses behind them, now I have four people technically to satisfy. So it does make it more difficult, especially because a lot of times the spouses don't want to participate.

Starting point is 00:19:34 And I have a term for that. the deal because they truly, they don't either even, they don't necessarily know what's going on in this process or they haven't heard the pitches, if you will, firsthand from me. Yep. I can imagine. Stick to individual ones is what I'm hearing right there. You can have a partnership. Definitely know what you're getting into. Yeah. And you just have to have the right partner for the business who's really going to operate it i work with i'm working with a guy on the dallas cowboys right now and my first question always is for professional athletes who's going to run this thing you can invest in anything you want but let's talk about the plan to make sure that you're taken care of. I know you're going to have a great attorney doing agreements, but you just want to make sure you run it effectively.

Starting point is 00:20:30 Franchises fail because they're not run effectively. It's not the brand's fault. I love this. Came from some of the show notes we had. I don't know if it was from your team, but finding the golden goose. Everyone always wants to know what's the hot stock? What's the hot this? What's the tip or trick? Can we, what is number one? I think it'd be fascinating to know your process for discovering those that aren't insider tips, by the way. But,

Starting point is 00:20:58 and then maybe some of naming, if you can, what you're seeing in trends and in franchises that are looking hot. Yeah. So there, as far as trends, I mean, there are 4,500 or so franchises, hard to pin down what the exact number is, kind of like the stock market. There's a lot of stocks out there. There's a lot of names that we know, McDonald's or Tesla and all these publicly traded companies versus these franchises. So my job is to find and cultivate the best of the best for my clientele. And I define those as proven moneymakers. Like when I was mentioning the air conditioning brand, that's One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning,

Starting point is 00:21:41 the largest air conditioning brand in the US. That's one hour heating and air conditioning, the largest air conditioning brand in the U.S. As a matter of fact, my wife's niece and her husband, they just bought a territory outside of Austin, Texas. $150,000 investment. They got an SBA Express loan. Justin's quitting his job eventually, and he's going to do that full time. There are plenty of investor types that jump into that brand, buy three, four territories,

Starting point is 00:22:07 and they keep their day job. They're what we call enfranchising semi-absentee owners, where they might work on the business, not in the business, 10 to 20 hours a week. Just have Zoom calls and what have you, but they hire a GM that goes to training for one hour. So one hour is a great example. Another one on the drain side or plumbing side. Zoom Drain is all about B2B, typically B2B, where plumbers actually call Zoom Drain because plumbers are great at a lot of things. A lot of times they're not so great getting through the drain, going below ground. Zoom Drain is a brand from back east, the northeast. Their biggest territory

Starting point is 00:22:46 for corporate does $11 million just in drain services. I'm about to go see a successful franchisee of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. Average franchisee there is doing $3.5 million. The guy I'm going to go see is a Marine veteran, 290 pound guy, phenomenal guy. I've already spoken to him. This is his sixth franchise, sixth. He's owned five others. He made money on all of them from a tax service to home care. Let's talk about home care real quick. Non-medical home care. People do not want to go in a nursing home anymore unless they medically have to and nobody else can take care of them. People, unfortunately, my parents are both gone. Both of them, what they have in common, they wanted to stay at home.

Starting point is 00:23:36 We hired home care franchises to take care of them. I represent probably 24, 25 home care franchises. And they're low cost, huge money makers. I know a guy that nets a million dollars a year out of a home care brand that cost him an investment of $200,000. Results may vary. Not everybody is going to do the same thing. But in the disclosure documents, if you ask again my criteria, in the disclosure documents that are public information, item 19 is the earnings claim.

Starting point is 00:24:14 So I look for proven numbers. I mentioned ZoomDrain. Let me tell you something about this. I mentioned ZoomDrain, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. Let's talk about Rolling Suds. Brand new franchise system my old buddy is the CEO of. One of the hottest selling brands of the year. It's a power washing brand.

Starting point is 00:24:36 But it's not a power washer. You and I can walk into Home Depot or Lowe's and we can come out with a power washer. or a Lowe's and we can come out with a power washer. That's almost like a kid's toy compared to this industrial Avengers style, crazy power washer that can clean the outside of a building four stories up from the ground floor. Their corporate territory that they launched their franchise model on earlier this year did 2.2 million in cold Pennsylvania. Pretty much most of it, $1.9 million was the six warm months, but $2.2 million for the year and a 35% net income. So because of those numbers and my buddy Aaron as the CEO and the owner, they're literally blasting their way, pun intended, across the

Starting point is 00:25:27 country. And we're talking, I think he's got 90 territories sold, 90 territories sold. And I think the average franchisee purchased three territories of that brand. And that's the thing. You purchase multiple territories to grow into them so you can get to 300, 500, 700,000 in income, whatever the heck it is. It depends on the brand. So those numbers are pretty easy to determine between the disclosure document and the validation process when you're talking to other franchisees. And I help through that. But those are just some examples. Body 20. Last one I'll give you.

Starting point is 00:26:08 If you have time, I'll give you more. Body 20. Electromagnetic stimulation or electro-musculo stimulation, depending on who you ask. My wife is a huge fan of this. Her body, she'll tell you all about it. She went this morning. It's a 20-minute workout that gives you the impact of a two-and-a-half-hour workout. Europe, especially Germany, they have thousands of studios like this. The U.S., it's still new technology. This is the future of

Starting point is 00:26:38 working out. Body 20 is incredible. You do a 20-minute workout wearing an Avengers, is incredible. You do a 20-minute workout wearing an Avengers Robert Downey Jr. style suit. Believe it or not, you're sprayed down with water so the suit conducts electricity. You put the suit over you with the carbon fiber probes and you're attached to a computer. They're working on the wireless version of this, but you're attached to a computer and it's amazing. Amazing. So those are just a few. So you're doing the same workouts, but with the electrodes? Yep. So I'll give you an example. They might have you do, let's say squats or lunges, and you might have like a broomstick or a light weight over your shoulders, and you're just using body weight, but the machine is pulsing your muscles.

Starting point is 00:27:33 So a lot of EMS was used in this country, like NFL players, when they hurt their knee or their elbow, the physical therapist would put those probes on their elbow or their knee and create that blood flow for healing and muscular stimulation, stimulate the muscles. And that's what this is, really. But this is done in a fashion. You have to experience it. It's intense. My wife, every time I ask her, how was your workout today, honey? Oh, shit, they kicked my ass.

Starting point is 00:28:05 Fun stuff. I love it. I like the 20 minutes thing. Time is money. But you know what? You appreciate the marketing. If you get that much more out of it, that will definitely take off. You appreciate the marketing aspects of everything,

Starting point is 00:28:19 and that's why people join a franchise. When I mentioned the power washing brand Rolling Suds, they'll turn on your leads when you're in training. And there's five different systems they have for getting people leads. They have franchisees in their second month doing 40 grand in revenue with one truck. Body 20, I mentioned the EMS place, the fitness place. Body 20, there are franchisees getting to $100,000 in revenue before they even open the doors in pre-opening with 300 plus members.

Starting point is 00:28:53 So franchising is all about marketing. And when you're going through that due diligence period that I'm putting you through and the brands are putting you through, It's easy to determine if this is for you or not. Very easy. Lance, talk to me about what makes for a successful franchisee versus ones that don't make it or don't or seem to flail around and stay operating forever but don't do well what are characteristics or qualities that tend to shine well in making this work this is the this is that magic question ryan your favorite restaurant in greenville that you go to i'm sure you have a couple of food servers waiters waitresses that are your favorite and then there's a few that are really bottom of your list. Yeah. It's the same thing in franchises. Doesn't matter how much money people have. There are franchisees that are outrageously successful

Starting point is 00:29:55 in a system where there are people that have failed or are failing. And it has everything to do with the individual ability. So the answer to your question is there are people, number one, that are a lot better with people, period. And it doesn't matter how much training they get. They're not a good boss. They're a dickhead to work for or work with. I was always a people person. So looking back on my career trajectory as a boss, I look back and I was tough and I was a pain in the ass. But I was very, I showed a lot of respect for the staff. I hired a great team. But it all starts with, just like a professional football team, it all starts with coaching. So for me, I always found a great head coach, someone that was running my organization,

Starting point is 00:30:51 that even though they might have different skills than me, it's like, for example, I hate doing admin. I love getting on the phone, talking to people or Zoom and talking to people, but I hate admin. So I'd make sure I surrounded myself with people. Collectively, we had all the skills needed to be super successful. But having people skills, and anybody can develop them. It's painful to develop them if you don't have any, but anybody can develop them. You have to create an amazing culture, even for your franchise. Become an employer of choice. I could tell you stories

Starting point is 00:31:25 of creative ways with Krispy Kreme Donuts. If you had time, I'll tell you how I found my leadership team for a Krispy Kreme Donut shop in another state before there was internet, before there was email. All we had was fax machines and cell phones weren't even. So let me tell you. So I drove into Utah, got the lay of the land where we bought the property and where the first location was going to go. We had plenty of time. We had to build the building. And I drove around and I knew that we were going to have some great volume. So I went to a Chili's. I saw there was a Chili's and Outback and Applebee's those were three that I recall in the area so I wrote them on my list when the time came I called all of those restaurants

Starting point is 00:32:12 early in the morning when I knew I'd catch a manager and there was no business because those places start out they open at noon or 11 o'clock whatever they open for lunch so I called each of those places someone answered I said hi I'm looking for the manager. Oh, this is someone's the manager. Great. Now, I didn't know if they were the GM assistant at that time, whatever. It didn't matter. So my name's Lance. Opening a really cool donut shop you might or might not have heard of down the block. And I'm looking for amazing leaders. And I'm looking for someone like you, but clearly I'm not recruiting you. You're probably very happy, but I'm looking for people that you might know that want to work for Krispy Kreme Donuts. Have you heard of Krispy Kreme?

Starting point is 00:32:50 And I had a little flow chart made up to remind myself. And I got good at it. They didn't know about Krispy Kreme. I told them. And I said, these are the salaries we're willing to pay and great benefits and hot concept. And we're building in two states. And we're going to be a big franchisee. And so needless to say, every single person that I spoke to was incredibly receptive. Nobody hung up on me or cussed me out. They all took my information and I pretty much got

Starting point is 00:33:18 resumes from every person that I talked to. And then there's a secondary part to this that is one of my favorite pieces. Then when I knew my schedule and when I was coming to town, I called each of those people and said, all right, I'm coming to town. I'm not sure. I pretended I didn't know my schedule when I'm coming in. And I was finding out their schedule because they were all employed. What's the next, what's the best way, Ryan, to find a great employee, manager, whatever? Catch them at work doing things right. And when you see somebody at work doing a great job, they're probably going to do a great job for you. So I found out all their schedules and I popped in and visited every one of them to observe them on a shift. And needless to say, guy at Applebee's, I actually revealed myself to him because I was so

Starting point is 00:34:14 impressed. And I quietly introduced myself and said, take a seat. And the first thing he said to me was the neon on the east side of the building that's hanging down, I'm getting fixed tomorrow. I didn't even ask the question. And he knew that would probably be important to me. And that was the guy not only that I hired, but he ended up becoming the area manager. He was that good. And he became the area manager, hired an incredible team. And that store opening was, at the time, one of the highest volume Krispy

Starting point is 00:34:46 cream donut openings. It did 270 something thousand opening week, $270,000 opening week. Holy cow. I love that story though. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings, I love that story, though. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings. Inspect what you expect. Right on, brother. That's it. That's what you did. That's it.

Starting point is 00:35:12 Everybody today, Ryan, takes the shortcuts. They throw everything on Indeed, and they don't take the time to strategize and plot out. Don't do the whole sprinkler effect, if you will, and sprinkle shit everywhere. Be very targeted in what you're really looking for. Talk to your network. Your network is supposed to be your net worth. I went to my network countless times to find kids,

Starting point is 00:35:42 high school, college kids that wanted to work for me in restaurants. And it worked. I always had a great staff. Yep. I love that. As we close out here, Lance, I think we've got people listening. We've got a lot of business owners. We've got people that are probably shaking their head. They're going, this is interesting. Might be interested. Always comes down to the good old mighty dollar a little bit. Give me, let's talk about some ranges that people would have to expect or have to bring to the table. And obviously there's loan programs. I'm sure you help people with that. But maybe just talk a little bit from the financial end of what it takes to make this happen. That's the beautiful part. The majority of brands, body 20 is about 400,000 open and you can do very well with that. But typical home service type brands, which is a hot category, a lot of the technical, whether it's plumbing or air conditioning, things like that, you're talking 250,000 or less to get into those with a hell of an ROI. To get in for $250,000-ish, you could easily be

Starting point is 00:36:48 doing the same or more in cash flow in a short period of time. And that's pretty incredible. There are quite a few business service-related things. I have a brand called Schooley Mitchell, $68,000 investment. but that's building a sales organization. And there are people that are netting a million dollars a year off a $68,000 business on a contingency basis, helping business owners save on their common expenses, expense reduction, if you will. But really the answer to your question is $250,000 or less. That's it. So really, most people I work with, if they're not doing all cash, they're getting an SBA loan and putting down 20%. So even on a

Starting point is 00:37:33 $300,000 deal, they're putting down $60,000. Post-closing liquidity, as they call it, is a requirement with these loans that you just have to have some working capital when you're closing on these loans, typically 25, 30 grand. But franchising is a tried and true system. And the SBA loves to do franchise deals because the odds of success are far greater than doing it all by yourself. I love it, man. A lot of great knowledge. I know we'll have a part two with you, hopefully here in G Vegas, not the Vegas. I'll be there. Where can everybody find, yeah, where can everybody find more information about everything you have going on with ION franchising, Get in touch with you, learn more, et cetera. Yeah. LanceGralic.com is one of my websites. And on Instagram, it's just Lance.Gralic.

Starting point is 00:38:34 You and I are connected, Mr. Ryan. And hey, hit me up with a DM that says, Rad, just do R-A-D. And I'll even send you the assessment through Instagram or I'm on LinkedIn. I'm everywhere. I have an unusual name. Easy to find. Love it. We'll also have all of that in the show notes. And go follow Lance on social media.

Starting point is 00:38:57 A lot of knowledge, a lot of information, and very responsive. We really appreciate you coming on, Lance, and look forward to continuing the relationship. Awesome. Thanks for having me, Ryan. And if you want to learn from me directly, join my newsletter, ryanoffer.com backslash newsletter. Sign up. I give daily advice on marketing, personal branding, podcasting, life. Give that a shout.

Starting point is 00:39:21 Join that. It's free. It's daily. Just like this show. Give away our best advice. Hey, guys. Find us, theradcast.com. Search that. It's free. It's daily. Just like this show. Give away our best advice. Hey, guys. Find us, theradcast.com. Search for Lance Gralick.

Starting point is 00:39:29 You'll find all of the highlight clips from today, including all the juicy nuggets from my friend Lance Gralick. I'm Matt Ryan Alford on all the social media platforms. We'll see you next time on The Radcast. on the Radcast. To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account, the.rad.cast

Starting point is 00:39:54 or at Ryan Alford. Stay radical.

Right About Now with Ryan Alford - From Donuts to Dollars: Exploring the Franchise Kingdom with Lance Graulich

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