Should you Franchise with Kim Daly

eorge grombacher 0:00
Hey what’s up this George G and A time is right welcome today’s guest strong and powerful Kim Daly. Kim. I ready to do this.

Unknown Speaker 0:22
I am ready George and this is your Daily

george grombacher 0:29
amazing. Yes, you are back on the lifeblood podcast. Welcome back

Unknown Speaker 0:35
is my sincere pleasure. Thank you for having me back.

george grombacher 0:38
Super excited to have you back. Kim is a top performing franchise consultant. She’s a podcaster, an author, a thought leader and she is the host of the Kim daily YouTube channel. can tell us a bit about your personal life some more about your work and why you do what you do.

Unknown Speaker 0:56
Okay, George, so I’m a franchise consultant. I love what I do. Because I get to help people change their life every day, people are looking for freedom. That’s, you know, I always tell people I’m not kind of quote selling franchising, I’m selling freedom. Right, the franchise is just the path to the freedom. So I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I’m incredibly blessed, I help a lot of people change their life every year. Outside of work, I’m a mom, I have two teenage boys. So that’s interesting. And I have two golden doodles, we live here at the beach in Southern New Hampshire. That’s a little about Kimberly.

george grombacher 1:39
Love it. I’ve got a six year old and a three year old boy. So I’m gonna have to get your Cliff Notes. Or the entire manuscript

Unknown Speaker 1:49
is the number one thing I’m going to tell you. When they were like 15 and 16, which mine are freshmen and sophomore in high school. There’s absolutely no talking in the morning. Like kids are like, Why are you so happy the morning mom Shut up.

george grombacher 2:09
That’s so funny. No talking, lights out the evenings. sound out the mornings. like, Alright, fair enough. It’s me in the morning. So something to look forward to right there. All right. So here we find ourselves coming out of pandemic and now going into recession by different metrics. Maybe we’re there maybe we’ll be there. Who knows? How are you thinking about franchising?

Unknown Speaker 2:38
So, you know, George, here’s the best news ever. In good times, and bad times, the franchise industry grows. So people’s motivations for investing will change, right? If the economy is great, people are building wealth, they want more of the American dream. They’re buying franchises. If if the economy is tight or tough, and people fear losing jobs, there’s instability. They want to pull their money out of the stock market. They’re looking for cash flowing assets. People turn to franchising. So my business really grows no matter what. I think that coaching people in a recession is different than coaching people. In a stronger economic time, there’s perhaps more fear, if you will, of you know, is this the right time? It’s just the right thing. But you know, look, I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I had my first standout breakout year as a franchise consultant in the last recession in 2008 2009. So I feel confident that I can help somebody if they come to me with a dream, even just to explore, that’s really all I say, Don’t come here trying to say I’m definitely investing, just come to explore, saying yes will be the natural thing to do when you’ve asked enough questions, and you’re satisfied with enough of the answers.

george grombacher 3:57
I appreciate that. That’s good advice right there. What does that exploration process look like?

Unknown Speaker 4:04
So exploring a franchise takes about through my process takes about one to two months. It involves me really getting up close and personal with you. Like I want to know you personally, professionally and financially. And I’m really, really focused on the vision of your future. So the way that I look at the franchise, as I said, it’s your you’re investing in freedom, right? You’re you’re setting yourself up for some future outcome of personal usually personal financial freedom. So I really want to know, like, where do you aspire to get to like, what is that vision and three years, five years? 10 years? Right? And how did this business play a role? Are you a multifamily investor with, you know, kind of passive investment over here and you’re looking for, you know, something meaningful to do with a few hours of your week or are you looking to dive in full time and then eventually be semi absent? So we’re talking about sort of quality Life goals and the skill sets that owners bring in, again, where they want to end up. And then my job is to bring them the most efficient vehicles for that journey, right, that will take them from where they are today to where they want to end up. So the process is about one to two months. It’s a lot of coaching on mindset. And, you know, I, I’m writing a book right now that I, I wrote in the book, I was rereading it last night. And I wrote in the book that like, I really look at exploring a franchise as it’s like, it’s like a battlefield in a person’s mind. And I’m like, the war general, right? Who’s, who’s traversed this battlefield? Many, many times. So I know where every landmine is. And if I’m successful with somebody, my job is to guide them around the landmines like the you know, like not getting your spouse involved soon enough, right? Because it’s never going anywhere. If your spouse isn’t on board or making assumptions about well, that’s not going to work in my market without asking the questions to the people that really can help you understand whether that is or is not true, right? Or, Hey, I’m not qualified to own that franchise, I couldn’t be successful. There are so many pitfalls. There’s so many assumptions, preconceived notions, you know, I’ll classify it all as, like head trash that people have. And really, when you look at how many people explore franchising in a year, versus how many people that actually say, yes, it’s it’s staggering how many walk away. And this is, in fact, why I have a business to help you know, what you need to know, asking the right questions, talking to the right people, and literally just bring in confidence to your investigation so that when you say that answer yes or no, you’re confident, and it’s not going to be based on preconceived notions that you didn’t thoroughly, like kind of, you know, do due diligence on before you just made them true.

george grombacher 7:07
We talking like 10% 1% of people that go through the exploration process that end up buying.

Unknown Speaker 7:16
Oh, so my statistics are not that. I don’t know, if I want to say it, a lot of people will be like, Oh, if I go hard, then I’m definitely buying. I’m pretty good at like, you know, helping people, you know, move around those objections. But there’s a book out there called street smart franchising, and one of the chapters is called the one versus the 99. And I don’t know where Joe Matthews, the author got that statistic. But he says that out of 100 people, you know, 99 won’t in one will. Now again, that’s not that, if I had that business, George, I would not be here 20 years into it. Sure. But I do think that there’s probably truth in those kinds of numbers, because, you know, even just trying to get through a Franchise Disclosure Document, right, this is the legally binding document. And I have a whole coaching called dedicated on how to use it. But more importantly, George how not to use it, right? Because people go to that FTD early, and it can literally blow up everything. And it’s so unnecessary, right. And so just helping people know when to turn to the FTD. And what to turn, you know when to turn to it, and why to turn to it. You know how to use it, how not to use it, it’s just that that alone is one of the most critical things that I do. But there’s so many other things funding, that’s a black hole, right? People left on their own, I mean, you can have the greatest dream, but if you can’t figure out how to fund it in a way that makes it you know, makes you not feel cash poor or to be able to even afford it, then that’s another place you’re going to walk away. So I have the answers to all of these questions and so many more. Yeah,

george grombacher 9:01
I see immense value in in, in having a process like Like you’ve laid out he had said, Oh, I’ll let you know, within three days. If it’s right for you. If you’re like wow, that doesn’t seem like enough time, and how are you really going to help me with with with my selection process? And then on the other end, make sure that the franchise thinks that I am right for them. So feel like needs to be a partnership or a marriage for lack of better terms?

Unknown Speaker 9:33
Oh, 100%. And actually, I mean, that’s the analogy that I use. This is absolutely a courtship leading to a marriage and you’re not just working with me during that one to two months like you just said, George, the franchisors are very interested in getting to know you because this is their business to award right franchises aren’t sold. They’re awarded the good ones are anyway. So the franchisor is going to take you through an investigation of their toolbox their market They, why they do what they do, how they compete in their market, how many customers, you need to build a positively cash flowing business, they want to teach you about their business, right? You’re Not You don’t have to go make this up on your own right? That’s entrepreneurship. Right. So this is all about finding people that you believe in, and that you buy into their vision. And ultimately, when you say yes to a franchise, you’re saying yes to a relationship. That’s the difference between entrepreneurship and franchising right out there on your own as an entrepreneur, you’re making it up, you’re all alone, you’re you’re you’re recreating everything, here, we’re not inventing anything, we’re finding people who’ve already invented it, and proven it out. And we’re paying them a fee to have access to that and have access to them as our coaches, our mentors, our guides. So that process that one to two month process. I’m guiding your mindset that the franchisors are teaching you about actual business that you’re looking at, and, and then after you get to know the franchisor, you get to go meet the crazy family of franchisees. So before you get married, it’s important to know like, what other people are in this family? And, you know, what were their backgrounds? And are they happy, right? Because of the people who already said yes, aren’t happy? Why do you want to go do it? Right? That’s one of the biggest red flags. So, you know, we get to go what we call validate out in the real world with the people who’ve already said yes to this investment. And it’s this collection of like getting to know the franchisor and then validating with the franchisees and finding alignment with your goals and your vision and the person that you are. And in aligning that with the people you’re meeting and saying I sound just like these people or I want to sound just like these people who built you know, a million dollar business in their first 12 months. So it’s finding that alignment that really that’s when people say, Yes, I want to be part of a franchise. Yeah.

george grombacher 11:54
I love it. That makes a ton of sense. Fred, finally, franchises are not sold, they are awarded that that if I were to be if I were to get into franchising, I would want to work with a franchisor that felt like they were awarding franchises than just trying to get them out the door and get butts in the seats.

Unknown Speaker 12:15
Yeah, exactly. Because look, the number one reason that franchisees fail, and there’s so many reasons, right? Why did franchises fail, but when we look at it from the franchisee perspective, that would be you the person signing the franchise agreement, the reason that franchisees fail is often because they’re not following the franchisors lead. So during this mutual evaluation process, franchisors are watching a candidate’s activities, their actions, are they making the calls that are being set up for them? Are they participating, acting interested? You know, are you demonstrating that you’re sincere, you’re involved? You’re, you’re confident and that you can ask a question in a in a, you know, in a in a social setting. And number one, are you following their lead? Because very often, if you’re not willing to follow their lead during the investigation, you’re you’re not going to be a good franchise owner. In fact, I’m actually working with a candidate right now. And I basically written him off. Because he asked me for help. I gave him some great options. I get him in touch with the franchisors and then he goes, Okay, well, I’m gonna go do my own research. And I’m like, well, that’s not really how the process works best. Like you could do whatever you want. Like, my advice is free. You don’t pay me for it. But there’s a reason you came to me. And there’s a reason I’m successful. Right? No matter what I said to the guy, he was like, I’m doing it my way. So I told the franchisor, you know, this is where he’s sort of at and they were like, Okay, well, we know, Kim, that that guy’s not going to buy a franchise. So we’ll send him some information, we’ll set up a call, we’ll see if he shows up. But we’re not going to really put all that kind of timing commitment into him. So I mean, I even told them, that’s what the franchisor said. And even when I told him that it still didn’t like, wake him up, you know. So he’s out there, he’s gone on way longer than two months. And in my experience, life just moves on, right, that you can’t explore and think about a bit. You can think about changing your life for six months, either you’re doing it or you’re not doing it, right. It’s like going to the gym, right? We’re in, we’re in October, it’s like you’re gonna want to do January, oh, if you really desire to change your body, you are joining the gym today, right? Don’t kid yourself that you’re gonna do something in three months, right? So there’s no real rush to get to the end. But on the flip side of that, if you’re here and you’re motivated, it’s like, yeah, we’re doing this not to just kick tires. We’re doing this to say yes or no and no, is a perfectly acceptable answer. Right. We just want decision makers, so and if you’re not willing to follow the franchisors lead during the investigation process, you might not even be awarded the opportunity to move forward. People are shocked when they are like, you know, I didn’t know that I there was they get to discovery day and maybe they’re they’re not awarded and they call me and you know, it’s a sad day for all of us because we probably all put a lot in. But on the flip side, I tell people look, take it as a learning experience. It’s this is one franchisor there are others out there. If you’re if you’re ready to go again, we’ll take the learning curve, and we’ll find the right franchisor for you. But if they didn’t feel like you were going to be a good fit. Perhaps they just saved you both a lot of money, and a lot of heartache. You know.

george grombacher 15:36
Yeah, I think that that’s probably true. So it sounds like it’s possible to be too entrepreneurial, to be a successful franchisee.

Unknown Speaker 15:46
Oh, 100%. But on the flip side of that, let me say this, George, so I broke free from working for somebody else when I was 25. My dad, so you are recorded. I’m a total daddy’s girl, right? So I went to work right out of college for a franchise consulting company, not the one I’m part of today. But that was my kind of like, foray into franchising. I actually answered a classified ad in a newspaper. And I was on my way to medical school. Like, I sound like you wake up and go, Yeah, I want to get into franchising. Franchising just sort of like finds us and at different points in our life. So I was very blessed to find franchising early. But anyway, I worked for that company for like, for three years, but I remember like the first week of being in like, my first out of college job, like, you know, your first nine to five job, and going on to my dad and being like, Oh my God, you’ve done this for how many years? It’s awful, shamed dog, like, I like I like to work out and I like to like wake up and go to the gym when I’m like, kind of mid day, not an early morning exercise or a late print, you know, and like, in the fact that like, somebody, I had to have like, FaceTime, you know, in the office and people I had to be in my cube a certain I’m like, this is like, so I wasn’t having it like the second that I could figure out how to get out of there. I was out and I’ve never looked back. You know, I when I was 40 years old. I remember like, you know, telling somebody, Hey, I’m completely unemployable. And my dad overheard me, he’s like, Kimberly, you’ve been unemployable since you were two years old. And again, you’ve always been the boss of you, like, no one’s ever gonna tell you what to do so, but, um, my tangent, I forgot even what I was talking about.

george grombacher 17:34
Just talking about how it’s possible to be too entrepreneurial.

Unknown Speaker 17:37
Oh, yeah. So what where I was going with that is so like, I love like controlling my own destiny and making things up for me. But the whole point is that there are different franchises for every personality. And that’s part of what I do for a candidate as well. Because if you are someone like me, you will suffocate in, in some franchises, where every i is dotted and every T is crossed, like, you know, not to pick on my friends at Supercuts. It’s an amazing opportunity for an engineer, for a super conservative investor, who really finds like safety from every eye being dotted and every t being crossed. But I’m not I’m more adventurous, I’m willing to, like throw it all to the wind and risk it because I trust in myself, I guess. And I would die, I would die, right. But the business that I’m in is a franchise. So there’s a franchise out there for every personality type. You don’t, you don’t have to be boxed in. I’m no one told me as a consultant to get on a podcast and go talk to people or go host live events, which I’ve done for all these years. They just said, You got to create a way to people, for people to want to work with you. And so I got to, like use my own creativity and my own personality to figure out how best to do that for me. But there’s other franchises where they’re like, No, this is our marketing plan. Right? So there’s a franchise culture and a structure that’s right for everybody. Now, if you’re out there looking at a franchise on your own, you probably really won’t be able to figure that out until after you’ve said yes. And then it’s too late, you know, but since I do this, and these are my relationships, right, like we, you know, the people that I work with, and most of these franchisors I’ve worked with for 20 years, you know, and so I know the culture I know what companies if you have Christian values, I know what companies are really built on Christian values. I know what companies are, you know, if you’re into like, health and fitness and you want people that are like not just like say they’re in but they’re like built by people that were like body built like I know, I know the backend structure of all these companies. So it’s an advantage and to work with someone like me just to kind of cut through all of that and bring you to those opportunities. Because the perfect match for a franchise, George. It’s not like, Oh, Kim loves to work out, she’s got to be in the gym. Like that could be an opportunity. But it’s really getting to the core of like, what is it about a gym environment that Kim loves, she loves being in a positive environment I love, like, where people are bettering themselves I love like meeting people and being social. So any business that has those type of characteristics really, I would be happy owning. Right? It doesn’t have to be. And so left on our own, I think we choose things that we know something about, or maybe that we see lacking in our community, right. And those really aren’t the best ways to make an investment as big as this. Because at the end of the day, it’s not a hobby, it’s gotta make you money, right? If it’s if it requires skills that you don’t feel confident using every day, it’s going to feel like the heaviest weight on your back. Right? It’s got to align with the owner that you want to be the time commitment you want to put in. And if it happens to be in something that on on top of all of that is a passion. Awesome. But on the flip side, I’ll tell you the reason I got out of the gym business, because that’s the business I broke up and went into was because I started to hate the gym. Because you know what, when I was making money, it was amazing. But when it was hard. And now I didn’t want to be in the gym for my own health reasons. And I found like my desire to work out and all that was just so lacking. I knew I had to make a change, and keep my hobby, my hobby, and make my business my business. And I was again blessed to find this role, which I look at, like personal training, right? Like, I’m coaching people through a process that changes their life. And that just makes me happy. So that kind of gives them deeper insight insight, if not like psychology to the matching process is so much more than like, you know, a widget or one skill set. It’s, it’s about a culture, it’s about your values and goals. It’s about the financial opportunity you aspire to. Then the last thing I’ll say is there even franchisors out there that are looking for, like a husband and wife team that are retiring from big corporate jobs, and they don’t want to just go play golf every day, they want something meaningful to do but a lot. And maybe they don’t want to have a team of people that they have to employ. So there are cultures that really thrive on that husband and wife. And then there are on the other extreme, there are franchises that are looking for an empire builder, they are looking for people that are aggressive, that want fast growth, that know how to manage and lead teams of people because we need you on it, not in it. And we’re gonna drive you to that million dollar business in your first 12 months. And their and their earnings claim will show that average first year revenue 1.8 million, right? Like that is not a small business, right? That is a business that took off from go. But that requires a certain mindset, skill set and financial capability. So it’s all of these things that go into the matching process so much more than what people think at the surface level.

george grombacher 23:27
Love it makes perfect sense. Well, Kim, thank you so much for coming back on where can people learn more about you? How can they engage with you?

Unknown Speaker 23:37
Thank you, George. It’s been my pleasure. My YouTube channel is like the greatest adaptation from 2020. Right 2020 was a year of either adapt or die as a business owner. So I turned that camera around from my live events and started creating content on Kim daly.tv. There’s over 400 videos up there today. It’s now being spun off into a podcast that you can find on Spotify and Apple. So please go to Kim daily TV Kim daily.tv You can find all of my content there all of my contact information enjoy my quirky sense of humor, having fun trying to teach people about the subject. I’m so passionate about exploring franchise opportunities. Love it.

george grombacher 24:21
If you enjoyed as much as I did to keep you appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to Kim daly.tv That’s K i MDALY. That TV and check out some or all of those 400 bit just go ahead and binge watch all 400 videos. Check out the podcast on that you said Spotify and I know that she is open to getting in touch with somebody if you are thinking about franchising, reach out and start that exploration process and find out if it is a good fit for you and what you are trying to accomplish. Thanks Kim Kim And until next time remember do your part by doing your best