Are you a franchisor and wondered how you can be successful in working with franchise brokers? Or maybe you are thinking about franchising and like the idea of franchise brokers, but don’t know where to start. Our guest today is Wes Barefoot, and he shares with us best practices on how to be successful with franchise brokers.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
Franchisor should start building relationships with the franchise brokers.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- You can visit our guest’s website at:
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- Get a copy of our guest’s book: CLICK HERE.
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
- Connect with our guest on social:
- IG: @path2frdm
- Twitter: @path2frdm
- YouTube: @franchise2freedom
- FB: Path To Freedom
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Wes Barefoot is a passionate entrepreneur with extensive experience in franchising. Wes brings years of experience as both a franchisee, as well as working with Franchisors, where he’s worked across a variety of operational, management and franchise development roles, with several franchise companies. Franchising has had a tremendous impact on Wes and his family’s life, and now Wes loves to help others take control of their lives, and create freedom for themselves through franchise ownership. Wes lives in Wilmington, NC with his wife Kelly, and three kids.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
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The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
TRANSCRIPT:
Dr. Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And as we open today, I’m wondering if you are a franchisor and thought about how you can be successful when working with franchise brokers. Or maybe you’re thinking about franchising your business and you like the idea of working with franchise brokers, but you don’t know where to start. Well, our guest today is Wes Barefoot, and he shares with us some best practices on how to be successful when working with franchise brokers. Now, Wes is a passionate entrepreneur with extensive experience in franchising. He brings years of experience as both a franchisee, as well as working with franchisors where he’s worked with a variety of operational management and franchise development roles with several companies.
(00:56):
Franchising has had a tremendous impact on Wes and his family’s life, and now he loves to help others take control of their lives and create freedom for themselves through franchise ownership. Wes lives in North Carolina with his wife Kelly and three kids, and you’re going to love this interview. Wes is a great guy. I’m so glad we were able to do this interview. Wes had me, actually, on his podcast here that published here just a couple weeks ago, so we’ll make sure we link that in the show notes. But you’re going to really enjoy this, so let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Wes Barefoot (01:27):
Thanks, Tom, appreciate you having me. I’ve been looking forward to doing this. So yeah, I’m Wes Barefoot. My company is Path To Freedom. I’m a franchise consulting firm. My wife and I own some franchise businesses as well, but my primary focus is Path To Freedom where I help aspiring entrepreneurs really understand franchising the full landscape of all the different types of franchise businesses that are out there and give them a methodical process to really work through to make sure they’re looking at the right types of franchise businesses. And then of course, doing the due diligence in the full capacity that they should be so that they can make the best decision for themselves. So, really kind of a matchmaker, just helping match people that want to be a business owner up with the right type of franchise for them.
Dr. Tom DuFore (02:14):
Thanks for being here. And in the franchise world, people who do what you do are sometimes referred to as franchise brokers, franchise consultants, lots of different terms that they might go by. So for someone who’s listening in and say, “Well, how is this different from what Tom and his company does?” and so on. So I’d love for you just to talk about kind of that process that you take people who have maybe never been an entrepreneur to buy a franchise, and going through that process.
Wes Barefoot (02:40):
Yeah, it’s a great question because I think a lot of people aren’t aware that brokers or consultants like myself are out there. And so yeah, the vast majority of the people that I’ve helped get into franchise businesses over the years are first-time business owners. I’m certainly am able to work with an existing business owner, an experienced business owner, and I’ve done that, but usually it is that first-time business owner. And honestly, in most cases, for me at least, when I start working with someone, it’s very exploratory in the beginning. It’s pretty rare that I connect with someone and they’re like, “Wes, I know I want to own a franchise. It’s just a matter of finding the right one.” It’s usually, “Hey, I’m curious about this whole franchise thing. I know someone that got into a franchise a few years ago and they seem to be doing pretty well with it.” It’s one of numerous routes that they’re kind of considering, right?
(03:38):
And so I always keep that in mind, and I learned years ago that you have to kind of meet people where they are in their own journey. And at the end of the day, owning a business and specifically owning a franchise is not going to end up being the right fit for everyone. So I’m very conscious of that going into working with anyone. But at least the way I do it, it’s a very one-on-one, very consultative process. And in the beginning, we’re just getting to know each other, right? And the more that I can learn about someone’s experience, their interests, what have they done up to this point professionally? What are some of the things that they’re passionate about? What do they get excited about? And most importantly, what are some of the goals that they have? And so we spend quite a bit of time talking about not only some of their longer term, bigger picture goals, but also some of the shorter term goals.
(04:32):
What would you like your life to look like in the next one, two, three years? And also, what’s missing from what you’re doing currently? What do you not feel like you’re on track to accomplish that you know you want to accomplish? And how do you think owning the right type of business could help you get there? And the more I understand that, the better position I’m in to recommend the right types of franchise businesses. Because you see this in your business, you work with so many different types of franchises. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to this. I mean, even just from a product service industry standpoint, there’s so many different types of franchises out there. But then, take two franchises that are in the exact same industry, and on paper, they look like they would be very similar businesses to own. Once you really start getting into the due diligence, you start to realize there’s differences and nuances between some of these different types of businesses.
(05:35):
And that’s going to have a really big impact on what your roles and responsibilities as the business owner may look like. It’s going to have an impact on the type of lifestyle that the business can afford. And so it’s really me getting to know and understanding the individual and especially what their goals and motivations are that then are going to put me in a position to make the right types of recommendations. So, we work through a process to get to that point. I work with about 200 of the top franchise companies across the country, so I have a relationship with them and do a lot of due diligence and vetting on my own, right? Because if I’m going to be in this position where I am recommending that someone look at any particular franchise company, I want to make sure that I have done the research and have the confidence to say, “Hey, this is a brand that I think would not only suit you, but there’s evidence. There’s other franchisees out there running successful, profitable businesses within that franchise.”
(06:38):
So that’s a big part of where I spend my time. But once we get to that point where we’ve got some good options on the table, as you can imagine, there’s a lot of research that has to be done. There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered. And any good franchise company is going to have a very structured due diligence process that someone’s going to be able to work through in order to really learn about the business and get a lot of those questions answered. But there’s kind of an art to going through that process the right way and asking the right types of questions, and also understanding that we’re talking about investing in a business. So there are some questions that most franchise buyers are going to have that the franchisor simply can’t answer or can’t directly answer, right?
(07:30):
And there’s some legalities around that in terms of they can’t make earnings claims and things like that. But the point is, there’s kind of an art to doing the research and all the different layers of research that need to go into it, which are going to include obviously talking to and meeting with the franchisor, but more importantly even speaking with franchisees that are already in that business and learning from their experience. And so it’s really just helping people understand how to do all the due diligence they should be doing, and then how to piece it all together so that they can see the big picture. And so in some cases, I’m working with someone for a matter of two or three months until we find the right franchise for them and they do the necessary research. In other cases, I’ve worked with people off and on for years until the timing was right and the right opportunity came along.
Dr. Tom DuFore (08:26):
Thank you for sharing that, Wes. And one thing that came up in our line of work, I actually had a conversation with a client earlier today about this where the franchisor, especially an emerging franchisor, they get sometimes insecure about the revenue potential or the metrics of their own business. And I try to reassure them that that’s not the only thing franchise buyers are looking for. It’s not always just a top line. There are a lot of factors. So I’d love for you to just talk about the idea of the quote, “How much money can I make?” Inevitably, every buyer will answer, how much can I make, how much does it cost? But I’d love for you just to talk through the differences in franchise investors and people looking to buy a franchise there.
Wes Barefoot (09:11):
Yeah, that’s a great question. And you’re right, it’s not always about what the top line revenue can be and what the bottom line can look like. And this is where I come back to the fact that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to this, right? The right franchise for one person is not necessarily going to be the right franchise for the next person. I’ve worked with people that are looking to start a franchise business so their son or daughter who is about to graduate college can step in and get some experience running a business. And so in that case, they’re probably not necessarily looking for the franchise that’s going to, on paper, show that the average franchisee is doing $4 million a year in revenue. Because to get a business to that point, there’s probably a lot of moving parts and pieces. There’s probably a lot that goes into building out the team the right way.
(10:04):
And so they’re probably looking for something that obviously still has good financial opportunity but is going to be probably a smaller initial investment, less moving parts and pieces, especially if the goal is just really to give their son or daughter some real world business ownership experience. A lot of times, where I start with someone is really looking at, okay, if you were to own a franchise, what are the other responsibilities that you’re still going to have on your plate? Because a lot of the people that I end up helping get into a franchise are people that have successful corporate careers. And they’re not looking to walk away from that corporate career kind of cold turkey, if you will, and start a business at zero and build that business up. They’re looking at a franchise as a way that they can diversify, add another income stream.
(10:55):
And a lot of times they’re looking at it as a strategic way that they can start laying the groundwork to exit their corporate job at some point in the future and really put themselves in position to do that on their own terms, but do it in a way where they can make more of a smooth transition. Step into a business that’s already got some good revenue coming in and hopefully some good cash flow, and can provide some income for them immediately. And so in that case, they’re still looking at the ROI potential, but they’re also really looking closely at, “All right, what’s going to be required of me as the franchise owner, especially in the first year or two of launching that business?” And they need something that’s going to be a little more flexible, right? They need something that’s going to allow them to still dedicate the appropriate amount of time to their full-time job, plus all the other responsibilities that they have.
(11:49):
So a lot of different things to factor in. You’ll see so many different types of franchises, and one of the terms we hear a lot is AUV, average unit volume, especially if we’re talking about a brick and mortar type business model. And this used to blow my mind because I kind of grew up in the nitty-gritty home service type franchises where they don’t necessarily cost as much to get up and running and you can just kind of keep growing it year over year almost indefinitely in some cases. And so as I started getting exposed to different types of franchises and seeing AUV numbers that, in my mind, were low compared to what I’d seen in some of these service businesses, it didn’t click at first. And then I started to realize, well, it’s just a different way of scaling that business, right? And most of the types of people that own those franchises don’t stop at one location or don’t stop at two locations. And the more locations you have, you get economies of scale and things like that.
(12:52):
So that needs to be taken into account as well. Because just because a single location of one type of franchise may not, on paper, look as though it can generate the same type of revenue as another franchise, that doesn’t mean that the typical franchisee is not doing three, four, or five times that, because it’s a multi-unit play for most of their owners. The ownership profile is a big part of this too, right? There’s plenty of people out there that are going to be happy with a franchise that can generate 100, 150k to the bottom line for them, especially if they can do it while maintaining their full-time job. In my experience, a lot of the franchises that, on paper, would show the best ROI and the highest gross revenue potential, it’s really going to take a full-time effort on the franchise owner’s part from day one. And over time, if the owner builds that business out the right way, they can start phasing themselves out a little bit. So those are all things that have to be taken into account.
Dr. Tom DuFore (14:00):
Two questions. One is related to the prospective franchise buyer, that franchisee that you’re interfacing with. And for our audience, largely is going to be an emerging franchise brand or a growing brand or maybe someone that’s been referred in that’s just looking at maybe starting a business or growing their business. What are some maybe common mistakes that you’ve seen franchisees make when they select a franchise to move forward with? I’m sure you’ve seen some great success stories and other situations where maybe the person didn’t take your advice or they just went out and did it on their own. What have you seen for some common mistakes there?
Wes Barefoot (14:41):
Yeah, that’s a really good question. Probably one of the most common mistakes I see on the buyer’s side is in terms of just how they go about selecting the types of franchises they think they should be investigating. And I’ll give an example of that. And this is not to pick on food franchises, but I hear some variation of this example all the time where someone was traveling, vacation with their family, ate at a great restaurant, realized it was a franchise, and then comes home and says, “Man, we don’t have anything like that in our area, and I just know something like this would crush it in our area. Therefore, this is the type of business that we’re going to go out and start.” And if that person has no experience whatsoever ever owning a restaurant or working in food service doesn’t mean they won’t be successful.
(15:36):
Doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t figure it out, but again, depending on the other factors, if they’re really wanting something that’s going to be a little more passive, a little more lifestyle-friendly, they’re basing the selection based on the widget, not the business model and the type of lifestyle they can afford. And really, what their roles and responsibilities as the owner need to be in that business and does that really play well to their experience, their strength and their interests? So it’s just kind of that approach of, “Let me make my selections based on the product or the service that the business provides,” and they probably don’t look close enough at some of those other things. I see that all the time.
Dr. Tom DuFore (16:22):
Great advice. And really just a reminder, kind of getting back to an earlier question. We talked about for the franchisor to know that it’s not only just the income potential. It’s not only just, is this a fixed location or home services? Sometimes it is. There are a lot of factors influencing that buyer’s decision, the franchise buyer’s decision as they’re going into it.
Wes Barefoot (16:48):
Yeah, there are, and I think probably one of the hardest things for young franchise companies is for them figuring out who their ideal franchise owner is. There’s usually some trial and error involved in an up-and-coming franchise brand where you start selling franchises, you get a few rockstars, you get a few folks that are average, and then you get some that are duds. And over time, you start to get a better and better sense of who you’re really looking for as your franchisee. But I think as quickly as a franchise can get pretty specific on who their ideal franchise owner, and then having the discipline to kind of stick to that. This is one of the biggest coaching points I have to give as I’m working with someone on the buyer’s side is that, look, the really good franchise companies out there, they’re vetting you just as much as you’re vetting them, right?
(17:48):
And this whole due diligence process that you’re working through, it’s not just one-sided where the franchise has to prove to you why they’re worthy of your investment. You also have to demonstrate to them why you would be a good franchisee and why they would want you to become a part of their system and a representative of their brand. That’s counter intuitive to a lot of people. I spend a lot of time coaching on that because I think a lot of people kind of come into this thinking that it’s almost like they’re going to be dealing with a used car salesman or a timeshare pitch where they’ll just say anything they need to say to get them in.
(18:27):
And there are franchises that kind of operate that way, but the really good franchises, they approve someone to become a franchisee. And it’s only after they’ve issued that approval that the buyer then has that kind of final decision to make. “Now that I’ve been approved, do I want to move forward with this or do I not feel it’s the right fit?” And so I think the sooner emerging franchisors can really understand that and have the discipline to hold to it, because I know it’s hard in the early stages. If you’ve got two franchisees, and three people just came through Discovery Day, and two of them are a no-brainer, you feel great about them. But that third one, you’re a little on the fence about. Very tempting to want to approve them and hopefully get those franchise fees in, but having some discipline to really stick to only approving people that you feel really good about is key.
Dr. Tom DuFore (19:27):
Excellent advice, and I love the idea. And we share a similar mindset and recommendation when it comes to franchise sales. In franchise circles in general conversations, we may refer to it generally speaking as franchise sales, but always remembering that you’re awarding or granting someone the opportunity to operate. And it definitely helps you maintain that selection process as you’re going through it. I think it’s wonderful advice.
(19:52):
One of the things I was thinking about as you were describing this. Especially for let’s say an emerging brand that’s going from 0 to 10 or even a brand that’s going from maybe 10 to that next 50 franchises, there are, what really I kind of consider it, irresponsible franchising. When supposed franchise experts that say, “Well, just franchise your company and then you’ll sell it through the brokers and the franchise brokers will sell all these franchises for you.” And I think that’s disingenuous advice. I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation.
Wes Barefoot (20:25):
[inaudible 00:20:25]
Dr. Tom DuFore (20:24):
So I’d love for you to maybe just help set. You are a franchisee, you’ve bought franchises, you’ve advised lots of prospective franchise buyers and people who’ve bought franchises, and worked with hundreds of franchisors, so you’ve seen a lot. So I’d love for you to just talk through kind of what’s maybe a more appropriate expectation or best practices for, you shared a few best practices for that emerging brand, but just what they might expect there.
Wes Barefoot (20:48):
Yeah. So in terms of an emerging brand, if they want to work with consultants or brokers, I would say it’s not necessarily a realistic expectation to just think that every franchise consultant out there is going to immediately jump on the bandwagon and start showing your brand. Now, there’s exceptions to that too, and I think for right or wrong, it’s one of those things where sometimes a really sexy brand comes along. And even some of the most tenured conservative franchise consultants out there are like, “Ooh, I want to see what this is all about.” And a lot of it’s going to depend on the personality of the consultant, right? I’m part of a network of consultants called FranChoice. There’s, I think, about 75 of us right now and most of us own franchises or have owned franchises. Many of us have worked for franchisors previously in our career as well. And so I would say, generally, the consensus amongst most of us at FranChoice is we need to really feel confident to start recommending candidates to an emerging brand.
(21:59):
I spoke earlier about the amount of time that I spend doing due diligence and vetting the brands that I’m going to be comfortable referring people to, and that includes brands that, in some cases, have been around for 20, 25 years, or five or six years, or are brand new and just getting started. But I think on the emerging side, most consultants are probably going to have a little more caution when it comes to just, “Hey, do I start sending people over?” And so if you’re an emerging franchisor, just understand that you need to really start developing relationships with the consultants that you want to work with. It’s not a matter of just saying, “Hey, this is our brand. Here’s a slide deck on it. These are the commissions that we pay.” You’ll probably get some people to bite with that, but chances are the consultants you’d really want to work with and the ones that are really in a position to help move the needle for you in terms of bringing you really good quality candidates and giving them good coaching and advice throughout the process, they’re going to need more than that.
(23:08):
And so much of success in franchising, in my experience, comes down to relationships and trusting the people that you work with. So for me as a consultant, when I get introduced to an emerging brand, the first thing I look at is, who’s the leadership team? Who’s the leadership team and what is their background? And if it’s a founder that has a lot of experience in their respective business but isn’t necessarily very tenured in franchising yet, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I love to see if they have been working with someone like Big Sky, or there’s a lot of different firms out there that specialize in coaching and guiding young franchisors so that they can avoid a lot of the pitfalls. So that gives me a little more confidence when I see that, hey, this founder who has a great business but is brand new to this whole franchise thing, they were smart enough to go and partner with some people that are experts in franchising.
(24:14):
As a consultant, I want to feel confident that an emerging franchisor has a good process in place, right? And what I mean by that is a good due diligence process that my candidate’s going to be taken through. And I don’t mean just a good closing process. I just mean a good educational due diligence process. Going back to what we talked about earlier. Does this young franchisor understand that this should be an approval process? And there should be very clear expectations set upfront as to what the process is and what are the next steps in the process. There’s nothing worse, in my opinion, than having someone looking at a franchise and it’s just an open-ended kind of scattered lack of process where it’s just the candidate or the buyer is kind of controlling that process. So those are just a couple things. We can go deeper if you want, but those are a couple of things that come to mind.
Dr. Tom DuFore (25:15):
I think that’s really, really helpful, Wes. And let’s do a quick shout out to your podcast. How can people get in touch with you, learn more about what you’re doing, reach out and subscribe to what you’re up to?
Wes Barefoot (25:26):
Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you for that. Yeah, so I host a podcast, it’s called the Path 2 Freedom podcast. You can find it on Apple, Spotify, any of the podcast platforms. It’s just Path, the number 2, and then the word Freedom. We do a lot on YouTube as well. We post all the podcast episodes in full video format on YouTube. The handle there is a little bit different. It’s Franchise2Freedom with the number 2 on YouTube. Talk to a lot of different leaders in franchising. I try to talk to a lot of franchisees that have found success in franchising for themselves to share their stories. And I have a lot of fun talking to other successful entrepreneurs that are not involved in franchising at all, but have cool stories and good advice to share.
Dr. Tom DuFore (26:13):
Wonderful, wonderful. Well, thank you very much. And if someone happens to have, let’s say, a friend that might be interested in buying a franchise or potential investor that says, “Maybe I’m interested in one of these things,” they get forwarded this interview, how can they connect with you to help them through that?
Wes Barefoot (26:30):
Well, I’ll give you my email address to start, which is just wes@path, the number 2, frdm.com. It’s short form for freedom. And then the website is the same, path, number 2, frdm.com. There’s a contact form there. And so yeah, if anyone listening, whether it’s themselves or knows someone that is just curious and would like to find out more about what franchise ownership could look like and what are some of the different options out there, I’ve got time for anyone that’s curious or has some questions.
(27:02):
So again, most of the people that I start working with, it’s exploratory in the beginning. And if business ownership’s something that you’ve been thinking about, take a proactive step and let’s have a conversation and see if franchising could be a good fit. The way myself and most other franchise consultants work, we get paid by the franchise companies when we introduce them to someone that becomes a franchisee. So there’s no charge for my time or my services, and there’s certainly no obligation. So it’s really a pretty low-risk outreach to set up an introductory call and see if it makes sense to take it from there.
Dr. Tom DuFore (27:42):
Wonderful, Wes. And we’ll make sure we include all those links and contact information in the show notes for you as well. And this is a great time in the show where we make a transition and we ask every guest the same four questions. And the first question we like to ask is, have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?
Wes Barefoot (28:00):
I can assure you there’s been more than one, but for the sake of time, I’ll share one that’s, I’d say, a little more recent and one that’s probably provided many learning experiences that we’ll be able to carry on with us. But this is actually in one of the franchise businesses that we’ve owned, and it was the second franchise that we invested in. We bought into this franchise towards the end of 2020. And at that point, we had another franchise that was going really well. I had my consulting business. And so there was a lot of things we liked about the idea of having a third business in the mix, but neither my wife or I were really in a position where we could put our full-time efforts into that new franchise business. So we kind of went into it looking for something that we could start with a full-time manager in place from day one. And a lot of franchise businesses are really almost designed that way.
(28:54):
In any case, we had a manager, we started this business. For the first year, it went great. Seven figures in revenue in the first year. This manager was doing everything that we would’ve expected him to do, but it pretty quickly, into year two, became a apparent that the guy that got us to that first million in revenue was not the guy that was going to be able to take the business to the next level and beyond. And so the big miss that we had was not acting on that knowledge sooner than we did. So in other words, we recognized that we needed to make a change, but it was one of those things where it was good enough. It wasn’t bad. We weren’t losing money and we were comfortable.
(29:43):
Because in order to make a change at a key position like that in the business, it was going to require either myself or my wife, or probably both of us to put a lot of the other stuff that we had going on kind of on the back burner temporarily, and step in to the day-to-day of this business. And that just wasn’t something either of us were crazy about the idea of doing, so that drug out for another year before it finally got to the point where we were kind of forced to make that change. So the big learning lesson there is the old adage, hire slow, fire fast. If you get to that point where you recognize that you have someone on your team that’s just not the right fit or no longer the right fit, don’t delay. It’s going to be uncomfortable no matter when you make that move, but it’s probably going to get more uncomfortable the longer you wait to make that move.
Dr. Tom DuFore (30:38):
Thank you for sharing. Well, let’s look at the other side of the spectrum now. Let’s look at a make or two, some highlights.
Wes Barefoot (30:45):
Yeah. So I think the first big make was when we bought our first franchise. I had been working in franchising for a while at that point on the franchisor side, pretty young or pretty early in our professional careers, my wife and I. And my wife had been in pharmaceutical sales, and we just had our first kid. Literally while she’s out on maternity leave, her company did a big restructuring and she was part of the sales force that got eliminated due to that restructuring. And it was one of those things at the time, it kind of felt like a kick in the gut. We’re brand new parents. We were used to being a two-income household. And at the same time, though, she was really, I guess, kind of anxious about the prospect of going back to work full-time. She was doing a lot of traveling. And she got maternity leave, but what is that? Four months? And then our brand new daughter’s in daycare full-time.
[NEW_PARAGRAPH]And so she was just really wrestling with that, so we’d been talking about some different ways that she could maybe still work, still produce, because she’s very smart, very driven, but not in such a full-time capacity. So long story short, even though it was a scary time and what we initially viewed as a negative, her getting her position eliminated from this good paying job, we were able to take my experience in franchising and a brand that I had been working with that had a great opportunity in our area, and that was kind of the launching pad for our first franchise business. And it just set us down this whole different path. Now we have three kids and multiple businesses. And it was really the genesis for my company, Path To Freedom, because getting us to a point where we don’t have to rely on other people, we can kind of create our own opportunity for ourselves and really live life on our terms. It was really buying that first franchise that kind of started that whole journey for us.
Dr. Tom DuFore (32:45):
Excellent. Well, let’s talk about a multiplier. The name of the show is Multiply Your Success. Have you used a multiplier to grow yourself personally, professionally, or any of the businesses you’ve run?
Wes Barefoot (32:56):
I have, and I think probably the one I would point to most is just always tried to surround myself with people that are doing bigger things than me and know more than I know. I’m far from the smartest guy in most of the rooms that I find myself in, and I like it that way. If I do find myself where I feel like I’m not surrounding myself by people that I can really learn from and that are going to push me and challenge me, I get uncomfortable. And so I think I’ve always just kind of had a little bit of a knack for understanding that, hey, a big ego is not going to do you a whole lot of good, and you can learn so much from other people, especially people that are already doing the types of things that you know want to do.
(33:45):
So, if that counts as a multiplier. I mean, I’ve had so many good mentors and people that have just been kind enough to share their time and their advice with me. From a pretty young age, I tried to learn as much as I could from other people. And that goes both ways, right? Met plenty of people that I’ve learned what not to do from, too. So I always try to take away something that I can learn from anyone I meet. Sometimes it’s the right things to do and sometimes it’s what not to do.
Dr. Tom DuFore (34:17):
The final question we ask every guest is, what does success mean to you?
Wes Barefoot (34:22):
I love this question, and I think it’s kind of what I alluded to earlier. It’s being able to really live life on our own terms. And what I mean by that is, I mean it’s not that we have so much money, we don’t have to work and there’s no rules. But live life on our terms, meaning that we get to spend the vast majority of our time working on things that we enjoy doing that we’re passionate about, and we have the flexibility and the autonomy to really prioritize the things that are most important to us in life.
(34:52):
Right now, we have three young kids. We sold one of our businesses a little over a year ago, really simply because it was detracting a little bit from the lifestyle that we knew we wanted to prioritize while our kids were as young as they still are. So for me, that’s success. It’s not about making more and more money every year. We’re certainly ambitious and very capitalistic when it comes to all that, but you won’t catch me with a Lamborghini in the driveway anytime soon. It’s more about the lifestyle that business ownership can afford us and prioritizing how we want to spend most of our time.
Dr. Tom DuFore (35:33):
And really even what you just stated there is that franchisees that are buying franchises will also be considering a lifestyle over just an income.
Wes Barefoot (35:42):
For sure. Yeah, yeah. I think in most of the instances, as I’m talking to people and really trying to uncover their motivations, there’s always a financial component that’s motivating them. But I would say more often than not, the lifestyle component is just as, if not more important to most of the people that I’ve worked with over the years.
Dr. Tom DuFore (36:07):
Thank you so much. Really appreciate having you here and sharing your wisdom. And it’s always great to have other franchise friends that are trying to help others go through this process the best way possible to get them to where they want to go. So I really appreciate what you’re doing.
Wes Barefoot (36:22):
Yeah. Always fun connecting with other franchise friends. And check out the Path 2 Freedom podcast. Tom’s going to be a guest here, hopefully soon. Tune in and hear Tom on the other side of the mic on the Path 2 Freedom podcast.
Dr. Tom DuFore (36:36):
Wes, thank you so much for a fantastic interview, and let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. Takeaway number one is when Wes talked about what buyers look for when they’re trying to buy a franchise. He said, “It’s not always about the money.” He helps his clients and franchise candidates figure out what other responsibilities are going to be on their plate after they purchase the franchise. He said he’s found over the years that the best ROI, or return on investment, for franchisees generally requires them to put in full-time effort. So if you’re thinking about buying a franchise and looking for that top tier return on investment, sounds like based off of what Wes is saying, you really ought to be thinking about full-time commitment to doing that. And he said, “It’s also important to think about, should you be buying a business where you have industry experience or background?” And he said, “It’s important to consider your lifestyle experiences and strengths as a person before buying into the franchise.”
(37:41):
And then flipping that, we can look at this for takeaway number two, which is when he shared best practices for emerging brands when working with franchise brokers and franchise broker candidates. He said, “It’s not realistic to expect that franchise brokers or franchise consultants will push a new or emerging franchise brand.” And he said, “The other thing is for a franchisor, an emerging franchise brand, to have clear expectations for what the next steps are going to be with the candidate,” and that franchisors ought to be selective when adding new franchisees into their system.
(38:20):
Takeaway number three is to have a clear sales process. I thought that was really great, especially for an emerging franchise brand. The franchise broker and the franchise candidate want to know that there’s a very clear process in terms of what the next steps are.
(38:35):
And now it’s time for today’s win-win. So, today’s win-win is that if you want to be successful in working with franchise brokers and franchise consultants, Wes suggested that as the franchisor, you need to start building relationships with those franchise brokers and building that working relationship. And as you know, a relationship does not just happen overnight. It takes time. So it might take six months or a year or longer before those franchise brokers warm up to you. But in my opinion and experience, I really echo that sentiment because many times, I work with clients that expect other franchise professionals to bring those relationships to the franchisor. And it doesn’t always work that way. It does require time and effort from you as that franchisor, or very often, the founder.
(39:34):
And so that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.
