Latest / Reframe First / Scotty Milas, Founder & Owner, ScottMilasFranchiseCoach.com | Why Your 'Why' Matters in Business
Transcript
- Oleksij Rak: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Refinery First. I'm Alexey Zakhust and let me welcome our today's guest, Scottie Millers. Scottie is senior franchise consultant for the Perfect franchise. And besides, Scottie is my fellow podcaster. He's running his own podcast. So hi, Scottie, it's great having you here. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yeah. Hey, great to be part of this. that's looking forward to the conversation. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, me too. So from what I learned, you are a former corporate refugee that you turned to be an entrepreneur, like same here, likewise. But I started my own software company, you went into franchising and it's a great space. Let's explore it further. So what could you us more about like how you came to franchise industry? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Well, franchising I think I fell into I I I I think I I I don't think I fell into it. I mean I I I knew about franchising, but I spent many years in the news media, and just you know Just didn't connect to that industry and you know, started working for some different companies, different industries. I was in the printing industry for a while. I was actually sold wolves of vinyl to the handbag industry and belt industry, but always knew that the the calling for me was business ownership. So started open my own companies. I had a staffing agency, I had a printing company I owned. Many different things, but I actually had a passion for food. restaurant industry, owned a couple of restaurants, but got a tap on the back shoulder to help a a friend of mine's son open a pizzeria. And that's where I met somebody by who was starting to put together a team for a fast casual burger concept that's now a national chain that I was part of. So that's how I really got into the franchising part. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: I was with that organization for almost ten years, pretty close to ten years, and put it on the map, headed up US development and realized that, you know, I could be doing a lot more in franchising. and actually got into the consulting part. So now really what I do is help people strategically put together a roadmap, a business model, and then introduce them to opportunities that fit in the franchising industry. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Providing guidance and education so they can make a a validated decision. So that's really how I got into it. as you mentioned, I run a very successful podcast on franchising called All Things Considered Franchising. I also am part of the referral network, the perfectfranchise dot com, and of course, Scott Milo's franchise coach dot com. So so that's how I got into it and It's it's been a it's been a great ride in helping entrepreneurs, people who are in interested in business ownership really take a close look at franchising as an option. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, awesome, awesome. story. So did I understand the advice that you held somebody build a franchise, right? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yep, yep, it's a successful burger chain right now, Fast Casual Burger Concept. they're a national chain. They're actually international as well. over in the Middle East, Canada, Pakistan, India. So yeah, it's a national chain. Great brand. still have still have a lot of friends over there and it's but I enjoy being I I enjoy my own ownership, controlling, you know, my own calendar and Making it happen for myself and helping others at the same time. So Oleksij Rak: Yeah, sure. Could we explore that angle a bit? Because usually we chat about franchisees and Ralph. Right now, we have this angle of helping somebody build a franchise and become a franchise. What does it take to be a franchisor? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Well, if it I a lot of people have different views on how it how you franchise a business. I the first thing is is that at least in my view, you have to have an existing business. you know, you can't f I mean people will tell you you can franchise an idea, you know, but to me you gotta have an existing business. And number two, if the if you do have an existing business, it has to be profitable. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: If it's not profitable, you can't, you really shouldn't think about franchising it. And if it is profitable, then can it be duplicated? And what do I mean by duplicating? Can my business, can I have a operations manual and hand it to you and say, for a fee, here's my operations manual, my my my training, my marketing, everything that I do that has made my business successful. Quote the corporate location. Now I'm going to give you the opportunity to do the same thing, but you have to follow my model. If that can be done, now you can really start thinking about franchising. And there are ways to go about it. Obviously, there's the legal side. You have to get a you know, disclosure document, and then you have to put together the team to franchise it, development team, and offer the franchise. what people don't realize is that there's the expense to legalize and franchise the business the right way, the franchise disclosure document, operations, manual, so forth. But the next part is the even more challenging part. And that's getting out there, lead generation, doing trade shows, creating an interest of people who may be interested in learning about your opportunity, who are interested in potentially becoming a franchisee within it. So there's two segments to it. The first one is rather inexpensive. probably costs you about fifty grand right now to franchise a business. It's pretty easy. It's you know, in the old days it was a lot more. but then there's the additional expense to actually put together the development team, whether you're using a franchise sales organization, you know, developing the team yourself, but you gotta go out and get leads. And it costs money the leads. I mean you gotta be spending ten grand a month to generate leads and push out social media and speak and go to trade shows and things like that. So that's a lot of work. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, so it starts with you need to have a profitable business, then you need to put your system together, then you need to do the legal work, the prep work, and then you need to go and start selling it. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I have a partner that I work with that will work with organizations that are interested in franchising and take through more of the details and what I call the minutiae of getting it all started. But a lot of people think that, you know, unfortunately all all I do is I I create an F D D a legal document. I'm now a franchise and people are gonna be knocking on my doors. you know, wanting a franchise or invest in my franchise and become an owner in the, you know, as a franchise, it it it doesn't work that way. There's a lot of work. And legally as a franchise or the brand, you have to be able to support the franchisees. You gotta be able to provide if it's a brick and mortar, you gotta be able to help them find a location, negotiate the lease, the build out, the construction, you mentioned product distribution, logistics, all that. So it's it's Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: You know, but the upside is it's a great way to scale your business. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, yeah. What does it take to find like right franchisees? What does it take to qualify them? Because I've been chatting with people about like franchisees side of the equation. I have to find the right franchise for you and have to ask questions and have to chat with other franchisees of the same franchise and so on and so forth. it's qualification from one side, but from the other side, what does it take for franchisees or... to find the right ones, the right franchisees for his franchise family. Because basically these are people who are carrying his name. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yep. Yeah. Yeah, you know, that's a great question. the franchise war, well put it to you this there's there's an evolution of franchisees. The you know, when I look back getting involved in the burger concept and growing it, the early stage franchisees are completely different than the franchisees that are currently in the system now or people that are interested. you have your evolution, you know. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: As a franchise war, it's important to kind of define who you're looking for. You know, we're looking for somebody who has experience in management, can lead teams, and just kind of go down the list and that's how you start. you know, I always equate finding franchisees to being a general manager of a baseball team. You know, you want the guy who can hit home runs, you want the guy who can hit singles. And and you go down the list and then you go out and you find this guy, you scout this guy, and you draft this person, and then they get up to the bat and they can't hit. You put them in the field, they can't field. So again, there has to be a lot of due diligence relationship building with this potential person before you award them a franchise. But you have to create the model. You have to create the person you want as an investor in your franchise. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: It it's it's it's a lot of work. I mean it's and it doesn't always work out, unfortunately. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, quite often you find the person and the person is not right in the long run. And from what I understand, it hits your reputation as a franchisor if you find a franchisee and the franchisee cannot perform this business and the business is not profitable. It just affects the whole reputation of the franchise for other potential franchisees. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Right, right. Well, especially early in the early stages of growth. You know, if you look at McDonald's, McDonald's has what, forty thousand franchisees. So if they close a store, you're not gonna hear about it. But if you're an early adapter, an early brand, and you only and you you're f you only have five franchisees in the system and one goes out of business, well, that's a big red flag. So you have to be very careful about who you're bringing in. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: That's why the process to award franchises can take ninety to one hundred and twenty days. It's a relationship. You may not all agree, but you gotta be able to get along and work together. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, yeah. And what do you think, as a building, like the biggest, biggest, biggest major major pains of the franchise or is it regeneration and qualification? Is there something? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: You mean as far yeah, I mean you you have to spend money to, you know, promote your brand. you have to be able to have a presentation. You have to put together a program to entertain and educate your potential franchisees. But yeah, I mean that's why a lot of early stage brands will work with, you know, will reach out to me and I'll to help them put it together. you know, it's if you think all of a sudden people are gonna be knocking on your door and Oleksij Rak: Not on. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: you know, r the telephone's gonna be ringing off the hook all of a sudden you're franchising. Because once you get out of the four walls of your geographical area where your store is, people don't know who you are. So it's and you know, if there's competition, you know, if you're doing a if you're doing a franchise that does gutter cleaning, well, what separates you differently from all the other companies that do? Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: gutter cleaning, where's the systems? People invest in a franchise because they want the support, the systems, the training, the operations, the marketing support. And as a franchise war, you have to be able to give your franchisees that. and if you can't, then there's no reason for that person to invest in the franchise because they can do it on their own. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And when it comes down to consultants, you're basically doing the matchmaking between franchisees and franchisors. Quite likely you have a preselected list of franchisors, franchises that you work with, the company works with, and when franchisees come, you choose. And it doesn't mean that this franchisor, by working with you, he will be guaranteed to get qualified leads. Do I choose it? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yeah, that's the per that's the perception that people have. I I my my approach my approach is our approach at the perfect franchise and my approach at Scott MilasfranchiseCoach.com is a lot different. We're w we don't consider ourselves matchmakers. We consider ourselves educators. So if I'm sitting down with you and you're interested in becoming an entrepreneur, we have to establish the why. You know, why do you want to become an entrepreneur? Oleksij Rak: No? could we? Yeah. Okay. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Why business ownership? Simply telling me that you don't like your boss at the job you're at is not a why. That is not the reason to open a business. So we have to establish the why. We have to establish the goals. Franchise oars are not looking for people who want to buy a job. They're looking for brand builders, they're looking for legacy builders, they're looking for people who want to scale. so we have to establish that, but our approach is more of educational. Oleksij Rak: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: You know, there's a the validation process. The brand is validating you, you're validating the brand. So we teach our clients how to validate the questions you should be asking. and we want them to become get down to making a f an informed validated decision. And the other component to all this is fear. We don't want fear to be the reason you don't do this, because let's face it, any type of major investment. any change in your status quo going from corporate to a business ownership, there's fear. So we want to manage the fear. So our approach is education, guidance and research. And then we can present the opportunities to you that are are potentially a good fit. But it it's a lot of work. It's a lot of education and guidance and asking the right questions. Oleksij Rak: So this is why your title says coach slash consultant. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yes, yep, yep. And it it's interesting because the guidance, the education, the research that I provide my clients is at no cost to them. My clients never pay me a nickel. The brands that I represent to what you alluded to, I have over 300 opportunities, different categories, different investment levels. They pay us a fee to match up people to them. but again, what people don't understand who are interested in franchising, who want to be a franchise owner, franchises are awarded. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: They're not based on financial means, although there are qualifications based on categories, but you have to be awarded a franchise. You're not simply just going to be handed you know a document that says sign my agreement. it's a unanimous decision among the the executive team to award a franchise. And that's the right way to do Oleksij Rak: Yeah, Scottie, what are the first questions? Maybe not first, but follow up questions. Because the first question is why you want to be an entrepreneur. But what are the follow up questions that you're asking? How do you choose? What's the right segment for franchisee? it elderly care or is it, I don't know, open restaurant? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Well, i there I look at two components when talking to my clients. there's what we call those service based businesses, B2C, B2B, and of course, like you just said, retail, whether it's food, fitness or whatever. Service based businesses, B to B, B to C, require what I consider to be a sales aptitude. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Now I'm not talking about being Willie Lowman, the death of a salesman where you're knocking on doors and dialing for dollars and cold calling. What I'm talking about is the ability and the comfortability of being able to meet with a consumer, a business owner, make a presentation on your product or service, networking a chamber meeting, BNI group, whatever it may be, building your sales team and managing the operational side. In a retail component. They tend to be for people who are more of the non-sales aptitude. They want people coming to them. They don't want to be going to the to customers, potential customers. So that's how we initial, you know, initially kind of break down whether service or retail or a combination of both. But then there's the financial qualifications as well. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: is typically a net worth of, you know, be a minimum net worth of three hundred and fifty, four hundred thousand dollars. If you're looking at a retail type business, you're gonna need a minimum net worth of six hundred and fifty, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. because retail can range for anywhere from a half a million dollars to two and a half million dollars, if not more. you know, your service based businesses are typically in that one hundred to three hundred thousand dollar investment level. So Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: There's a lot of strategic thinking going into play. So Oleksij Rak: Yeah, that's good. So it's are you a salesperson? What's your networks and how much you're ready to invest? What else? What else? Working with people. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yep. Well, yeah, like when you say what else meaning, you know, is that you know, look, there it there has to be the why. You know, why am I doing this? you you know, we have what's called restraining forces, things that would prevent you from becoming a business owner. What are they? Let's talk about. you know, family. yeah, hey, you know, I can't stand my job, I hate my boss. but my wife doesn't want me to own a business, or vice versa, you know. so there has to be the family the family approval, the spouse approval. if you are both gonna go into business together, I do a lot of coaching with couples, you know, I always tell couples to sit down at the kitchen table with a pad of paper and each of you write out what each other's responsibilities are gonna be in the business. You'd be surprised. I mean how they can't agree on what the responsibilities are. And if you can't regr agree on the responsibilities, how are going to be successful? So there's a lot of strategic thinking on becoming a business owner. And we call those restraining forces. Why, what what would prevent you from doing this? Spouse, financial. I don't have any time. I'm on a semi-absentee, discretionary income type business. Well, great, but Are you just gonna open a business, turn the keys over to a manager and hope they run the business right? You still need twenty, twenty-five hours a week to provide oversight. Well, I don't have time to do that. Well then you don't have time to be a business owner. Oleksij Rak: Uh-uh. Yeah, are there actually semi absentee businesses that you can run franchise businesses? Because... Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: there are. Yeah, there are, but you have to be careful. I mean, it's you know, it it's the most misinterpreted phrase in franchise in today's semi absentee. People think you can invest it's it's you know, I mean, are you gonna invest a half a million dollars in a business and then turn, like I said, turn the key over to somebody? Now, if you're a qu if you're a corporate person. Oleksij Rak: And so, yeah. It's like, pass the wind, it just doesn't work. I've heard a little bit, yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: And you work from home and you create your own schedule. And let's just say you gotta run down to the store because a piece of machinery is not working, that's great. You have time to be a semi-absentee owner. But if you're glued to an office and you're traveling around the world and you don't have anybody in family or a very close friend or somebody you know to run the business, I caution people on that. So semi-absentee, passive. It it it's a mis y you have to be very careful about. Well, I wouldn't say that. There are very success there are very I have clients who are very, very successful semi-absentee owners, but they know how to create the management team. I mean, one of my clients I work with owns four different brands. you know, and he but he has a management team. He has the structure, he put it together. he built it. you just can't go out and buy a business and be semi-absentee. You still got to put the hours in. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: And no franchise, no brand franchiseors going to approve you if you don't have a management plan to be a semi-absented owner. If they if they're just going to award you a franchise and don't wanna know about your plan, you're in trouble already because the brand doesn't care. They just want your franchise fee. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, with regards to that disclosure document that you mentioned, the franchise disclosure document, out of these 23 chapters, besides chapters 7 and 19, guess, what do you pay attention to? Because these two are about money. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: well you wanna look at the legal side, you know, have there been any lawsuits? what are the lawsuits about? You wanna look at the operational side, the training side, the di you know, within the document, the fees, the structure of the fees. Remember the i in most cases the franchise agreement which is inside the fran the F D D is non negotiable. I mean, 'cause everybody really needs to be on the same playing field. But you still gotta understand what your responsibilities are and what the brand's responsibilities are to you. Oleksij Rak: Last words. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: my clients, when they narrow down their search to one brand, and before they go to what we call the final meeting, whether we call it Discovery Day, Meet the Team Day, whatever it is, where you know that final step, we want them going to that meeting that they're going to say yes. They know they're saying yes, unless, of course, they find out that they're part of a cult they don't want to belong to. But we've already had them speak to a franchise attorney. To review the franchise agreement in the FDD. so it's non negotiable, but you gotta know what you're signing. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, and that's quite a lot of text. it's a lot to read. Can I put FDD into some chat GPT and ask it questions? Just out curiosity. You can. How good is your answer? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Mm-hmm. Yeah. K yeah. I mean I I look I mean look I've had clients and you know that send the list over, you know, because they read it themselves with 20 different requests or they went to a friend who's a real estate attorney and he read it and they tried to rewrite the agreement and the brand's gonna say no. I mean, because the last thing that you wanna happen is you don't want to be sitting next to a person who has a better deal than you. Because that's how the fighting starts. Yeah, it's so so the FDD is important, the franchise agreement is as important, if not more important, but it should be reviewed by a franchise attorney once you've made up your mind that this is the brand I want to invest in, and before you sign the agreements and before you get the approval. Now, there are certain things you can negotiate: development schedule if you're doing multi-unit, multi-territory. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: But you're not negotiating fees. You can't. You're not negotiating royalties, marketing fees, technology fees, and so on. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. How about vendor lock-ins and similar stuff? it? Vendor lock-ins. Like select. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: What kind of stuff? yeah, you can you can negotiate time frame to find a location. You know, the brand gives you six months, but you really need a year. Look, the brands want to set people up to be successful. They're not looking to make lives difficult. You know, they want you to get into the right location. They want you in the right territory. So again, there's all the strategic conversations beforehand. If you you know, if you can't find a location. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: within the time frame and the development schedule and you're actively looking and working to find a location, of course they're gonna work with you and extend it. But what they don't want is somebody signing the franchise agreement and not working on it. They want to get you open so they can collect royalties. That's how brands, franchise ours, make money. They make money on the royalties. They don't make money on you signing a lease. They don't make money on the franchise fee. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: So they want to get you open, but they want to get you open the right way in the best location or territory. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah. And when people come, like potential franchisees come to you and you educated them and consulted them, do you present them a couple of options or you just point them, this is the right one for you? How does it Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: We I I typically I typically present anywhere from five to seven opportunities, but I've done a market research conversation with the brand. So I'm presenting brands that are available in their area or nearby. so we go into detail on that. So I'm not presenting opportunities that require somebody to relocate or travel two hours to. so yeah, so it it's it it's we're presenting f you know, five to six opportunities and we want them to pick Oleksij Rak: okay. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: And I want them to pick no more than three that we would start educations with. I don't our process does not work best when somebody says, well, I want to think about it. The problem is, or I want to research this. And the reason is that when people research this early in the stage of the game, they're researching as a consumer, not as a business owner. Oleksij Rak: So we just. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: So and when you research on Google, on the internet, you're researching as a consumer. The business information comes from the brand and talking to the franchisees. So that's that's the that that's our process. That's our educational process. Oleksij Rak: Does it take a lot of work to prepare all this, like five to seven proposals for them? Because it probably takes... Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Well my yeah, I mean look, it's it's it's it's a high element on my part. I mean it's and that's why I work with people who are serious. Like I said, I'm not looking I'm not looking for people who are looking to kick the can down the to you know, the street. You know, there has to be some pain. There has to be a why, there has to be a reason to this. And like I said, it's you know, I had a bad day at work. Well, find another job. You know, but the problem is is that the people Oleksij Rak: you Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: That are in that 50 to 55, 60 year age group who are displaced, even 45, are having a hard time getting back into corporate America at the same level they are. And then so they they start looking at business ownership as a way out of corporate. Then there are people that are in corporate, been in it for 20, 25, 30 years, and they're saying, wow, I've built this all this wealth for the company that I'm working for. Now it's time for me to do something for myself and my family. Start building my own family legacy. Like I help the guy I've been working with for twenty years, twenty five years. So so that has to be that why. We we need that why. Oleksij Rak: So we need, yeah. If not a secret, what's the most time consuming part of your work? What do you think? Working with people, educating them, like putting together the proposal? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yes. Yeah, it's the c it's the conversation. No, the proposals. There there's really no proposals. I mean the brand presentations are easy to put together. but it it's it's working with the people. I mean there's your weekly check-in calls, weekly conversations. They could be twenty minutes long, they could be two minutes long. you know, are you doing your f homework on financing? Have you started financing research? if you have and you find a brand, are you now pre-approved? Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: You know, are you gonna do a four one K rollover? Are you doing a home equity? so there's a lot of things to talk about. So th the it it it's i there's no hard work to this, it's just staying in contact, follow up, and staying engaged. I had a client ask me once, why does it take ninety to a hundred and twenty days to go through this process? And I said it's pretty simple. I said franchise wars. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Want to make sure the brands that you can follow a process. Because if you can't follow the process to be awarded the franchise and be approved to be awarded, how are you going to be a franchisee? A business owner. It's it that that's it's the simplest, it's the simplest way to look at it. Brands want to follow the process. I mean, a franchise your could hand you the FDD, wait 14 days and say sign. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's following even bigger. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: But who's gonna do that? I mean, you know, they want to bring people in who are gonna be successful. Does it always work out that way? No. But that's what their goal is. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, yeah, I see. What trends do you see in this industry happening recently? I've heard about corporate refugees, displaced IT workers, but what else is happening in the industry? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: A lot of diversification, people who are already business owners looking to diversify their portfolio. you know, if it is a franchise, maybe they've run out of room to scale. Now they have to look to maybe businesses that can offset and work together with the businesses they already have, or they take a complete right or left turn and go into a different category. people who have businesses, now their children are coming into the business, don't necessarily want to be in that business. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: But they're interested in other businesses within franchising. so there are a lot of different reasons people come into it. you know, but the trends, it's you know, there are a lot of different reasons why people get into it's legitimate reasons why people get into business ownership and explore franchising. But franchising's not for everybody. It it's not. If you can't follow a process, then franchising isn't for you. If You know, I always use the example of if somebody handed you a book and said, learn to fly the plane, and you're the type of person that threw the book out the window and tried to fly the plane on your own, learn it to fly it your own, franchising is not for you. Franchising is about following the book, so to speak, that and listening to the franchise work, the training, all the things that have made people successful. If you're not going into franchise ownership as wanting to be one of the top owners within the system, you know, if you just want to be average, franchising may not be for you. Oleksij Rak: So this is specific skill. On one hand, you need to be an entrepreneur by yourself, but you also need to follow the process. So it's... Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yeah. Look, some of the greatest ideas have come from franchisees. We know that. I mean the five dollar foot long, you know, the happy meal, the you know, Paul Newman's free coffee to senior citizens. All those things come from franchisees. But you can't create good ideas or come up with good ideas until you know the systems. So I always joke with people, learn the systems for six, twelve months. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: And then if you have an idea, present the idea to the brand. But you can't roll it out. you know, you can't open a burger concept and then decide to sell roasted to your chickens. You just it just doesn't work. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, It's kind of this current age of AI automation, some all that kind of stuff. If you could like with a snap of your finger, build some some product, AI product, software products, whatever that could help you or like benefit the industry, what would it be? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Well, there are a there there are AI tools now being used for consultants like myself, helping them read into what what's a better fit, what's a good fit, what's not a good fit. you know, people are using AI to take it a little bit of a deeper dive into the F D D, the franchise agreement. I d I don't know. I I I I I'm old fashioned. I'm gonna be sixty seven years old. I love technology, don't get me wrong, but It it's you gotta go with your gut. I mean, and and and and if your gut is telling you that this is the business for us and you can see yourself being successful, great. If you're trying to find reasons to try to put the square peg in the round hole or get the square peg in the round hole, I don't know if AI can figure that out for you. so I think AI prevents a lot of mistakes and mistakes from happening, but I think it I don't know what it what to answer your question. I don't know what AI could do to make somebody a better business owner than not. I don't know if that answers your question. Oleksij Rak: It cannot help you be a better business owner, it can help like you go through all the process probably. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: It can help you write the processes, it can help you write the systems, it can help you define the right franchisee for you. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: But it's not going to run the business for somebody or a franchisee. Oleksij Rak: It's not, It's in the matchmaking process that some steps can be automated simplified, but it's not about running the business. need to do your job yourself. Awesome. Awesome. That was a great discussion, Scottie. And thanks a lot first for that. Before we wrap it up, is there anything else you would like to add? Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yeah, so No, I mean again, two things. I mean in two conversations. If you're looking to franchise your business, I mean, go slow. I mean it it's it's it's it's not a bed of roses. it's it's not a Brinks, Wells Fargo cash truck at the end of you know, the end of the road. Takes a lot of time to build up franchisees. and you have to be able to support your franchisees. And if you're interested in business ownership, you know, reach out to a consultant, reach out with somebody who's got the expertise and the guidance, but be careful who you work with. Not all franchise consultants, guys like me, have spent extensive time within the franchising industry. Some of them are just retired doctors and lawyers that are just looking, you know, this to spend some time trying to help somebody out and they don't know the industry. Franchising is a legal entity. It's there's a lot of legalities, both on the franchise or side and the both on the and the franchisees side. So you gotta be careful. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Thanks a lot for this discussion and good luck. Scotty- THE PERFECT FRANCHISE: Yeah, thank you for having me anytime. All the best. Cheers. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, cheers.