Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Become an Emerging Franchise with Carson Wagner

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How to Become an Emerging Franchise with Carson Wagner · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome back to the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, your host, and I am so excited to have the opportunity to introduce
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  you guys to an amazing small business owner.
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  Her name is Carson Wagner.
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  She is the founder and CEO of Lifetime of Love Nannies, an emerging childcare franchise based
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  in Reno, Nevada.
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  A college dropout who started her business at just 19, Carson has built her business from the
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  ground up with no safety net, no shortcuts, and in 2025 she made the bold decision to
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  franchise.
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  So today Lifetime of Love employs over 100 women and has 10 franchisees coming on board.
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  So we are so excited.
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  Her mission is we are accepting of all children of all capabilities.
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  Carson has fueled growth through podcast interviews and a lot of media, and we are so
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  excited to have her here.
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  If you want more information about her business, it is wwwlifetimeoflovenannies.com.
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  Carson, welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  Thank you so much for having me, Melinda.
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  I'm really excited to be here.
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  Alright.
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  Well, let's just get us started.
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  Like, tell us how you got the bright idea at 19 to start a business.
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  Yeah.
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  Totally.
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  I mean, like any 19 year old, I feel you're trying to figure out what the heck do I want to
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  do with my life?
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  You're going into adulthood, adulting is hard and you're just trying to figure out what do I
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  want to do?
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  And that's exactly how I felt.
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  I was going to college, I felt pretty lost.
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  I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I did know that I had a really big passion for
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  children with autism and special needs.
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  And I just realized in my teeny tiny little 20 fourseven city that there was such a need for
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  one twenty fourseven childcare, but also such a need for two childcare that was accepting to
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  all children of all capabilities.
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  And so I got a wild hair one night was like, I'm gonna get my business license and do this
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  thing and drop out.
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  My family thought I was crazy and I had lost my mind, but now six years later, it's genuinely
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  been the best, most fulfilling journey I could have asked for.
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  Now, what gave you the confidence to bet on yourself so early?
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  God, I don't think there's any other any other explanation to be honest with you.
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  I I wasn't a straight A student to say the least.
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  I did not have great punctuation when it came to emails.
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  I didn't have a whole lot of confidence in myself to be quite honest with you.
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  I think throughout the years, I've definitely gained confidence in myself and in my business.
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  And it's caused me a lot of personal growth and hands on experience.
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  That's kind of what happens.
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  And I just knew, if there was a will, there was a way and boy, did I have a will to make this
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  happen.
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  And so I just stayed as consistent as I possibly could.
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  And I think that consistency helped me gain more confidence in my abilities because don't
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  think I had much confidence in my abilities in the beginning, but the more I started
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  realizing, hey, I'm completely capable of doing this and I love it.
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  It was really easy for my confidence to follow.
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  I like it.
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  I like it.
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  So tell me about your business itself, Lifetime of Love Nannies.
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  You provide 20 fourseven childcare.
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  Is that your differentiator, would you say, in terms of like, you know, most sort of like drop
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  off pickup, like kind of daycare situations?
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  Yeah.
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  We're twenty four seven.
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  We're also a 100% customizable, which I think is a big take on modern day childcare.
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  Most families are dual working households at this point, and so they need childcare that's
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  flexible for their needs.
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  And so we're 20 fourseven, a 100% customizable.
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  And then the one thing we do really well at is we employ all of our nannies.
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  In our industry, in the childcare industry, in the nanny industry, a lot of nannies are paid
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  under the table as $10.99 or just under the table completely.
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  And so one that's illegal and two that shouldn't be happening.
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  And so I just knew when I started my agency that instead of asking the families to employ,
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  because most of these families have never employed.
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  And so to say, hey, find childcare.
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  And also here's this burden of trying to learn how to employ your first employee.
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  There you go.
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  I just wanted to be the one stop shop turnkey solution for the nanny industry and for
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  childcare.
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  And so we w to all of our nannies, which also allows us to be able to train them, which then
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  allows us to have consistency where the nannies know exactly what our mission, vision and core
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  values are and how to bring that into the children's lives and the family's lives on a
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  daily basis.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  So let's talk about what was the inflection point for your business?
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  Like how, when did you see the real growth in your business that stabilized you to the point
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  where you thought you could franchise your company?
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  Certainly, I mean, when I first started the agency, it was in 2019.
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  So as we all know, COVID happened.
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  When COVID had happened, all of the daycare and childcare facilities shut down, which left us
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  as one of the only options in our area for childcare, which really streamlined it.
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  I mean, it just, it blew up our growth.
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  It really did.
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  And so we grew massively due to COVID.
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  And then I realized that, hey, like this model's working really well here.
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  Let me go ahead and try to take it out to Las Vegas.
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  And so that's exactly what we did.
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  We opened our location three years in Las Vegas, which is doing incredibly well.
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  And then we were like, Hey, let's go ahead and try Sacramento.
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  We did that had the same outcome.
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  And so we just learned from starting more locations that we had a model here that was
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  working that other communities genuinely needed.
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  And so I was on a podcast a few months ago And I had mentioned like, I'm gonna franchise.
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  I just threw it out there because I had thought of so many different ideas of how do I wanna
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  grow my business.
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  I know I want to grow this.
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  I know I want this to be in all 50 states, but how do I get there?
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  And with childcare franchising was the right option for me and my business, because it needs
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  TLC.
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  I mean, we are shaping the next generation here.
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  We don't take that lightly.
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  And I can't be in 50 places at once.
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  And so I wanted to find other owners that cared as much as I cared and also had a passion the
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  way that I have a passion for this business in this field to train them, show them our model
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  and how it works and give them basically the business in the box and say, Hey, take this
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  into your community.
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  And so I threw it out on a podcast and the gal that was interviewing me on the podcast
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  actually got off.
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  She goes, Hey, I love this.
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  Can I buy your first one?
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  And so that was really cool.
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  She bought the first one.
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  She's fantastic.
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  They're in Charlotte.
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  And so then I just started doing more podcasts and I've just found people through podcasting
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  and word-of-mouth and it's been quite an awesome journey.
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  All right.
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  So let's go back a little bit though.
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  Tell me when you decided to franchise, you decided to do it yourself.
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  And that, you got a chance to learn a whole bunch of expensive lessons doing that, didn't
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  you?
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  Oh, boy.
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  I definitely did.
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  I mean, I just thought franchising like, you think of franchising, like, just it's gotta be
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  an agreement, it can't be that hard.
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  And that's kind of how I've always been.
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  I just am someone that jumps in head first and like, I'm gonna figure this out through trial
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  and error.
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  I will tell you figuring out franchising through trial and error, you don't wanna do.
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  You don't wanna do it.
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  And so when she told me that, I was like, okay, let me figure this out.
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  Franchising attorney, all of these different things started coming with dollar signs.
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  And I was like, woah, this this is quite different than I thought it was going to be.
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  I'm super, super grateful that I did it and thankfully I have support now.
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  I I can say for certain I am no expert.
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  You know, it's been ninety days.
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  I think we're pushing maybe what twenty to give myself a little more.
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  But yeah, I mean, it's definitely a learning process.
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  I think for me too, I quickly realized Melinda that I'm no longer operating my nanny agency,
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  my household staffing agency.
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  I am now operating a franchise.
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  I think it was yes, the systems and figuring out everything I need to give the franchisees,
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  that was a hurdle within itself.
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  But then also seeing how quickly my role in my business changed overnight.
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  And so that was quite a transition for me to try to get used to.
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  I love it now, but it was definitely a transition to say the least.
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  Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was.
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  What would you say was one of your biggest boo boos you got in this process?
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  What was like one of your colossal lessons that you got a chance to learn as you did this
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  business?
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  Yeah, you know, think knowing one of the things that I really wish I would have done in the
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  beginning was to have support, because I think I just could have saved myself so many
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  sleepless nights and hours upon hours upon hours of headache.
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  If I just would have outsourced some help and gotten some help from someone that actually has
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  genuine experience in this.
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  So I wasn't having to trial and air this on my own.
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  I'm too far into my business to be trial and airing to the extent I did.
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  I should know better, I should.
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  Now I know better, thank goodness.
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  But in the beginning, I think everything just happened so quickly and I'm like, Hey, I'm
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  going to jump on this and write it.
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  This is working.
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  I just wanted to do what was working, but also I wish I would have I really wish I would have
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  asked for more help.
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  But everything happens for a reason.
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  I'm really glad that I did it the way I did because now I feel I'm even more grateful for
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  the processes and the things we have in place now because I know exactly how it feels like
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  without it.
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  Sure.
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  Sure.
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  Alright.
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  So tell us, what does it take to become a franchisee of Lifetime of Love Nannies?
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  Yeah, we're really looking for people that have a genuine passion.
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  That's really the first thing we're looking for.
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  People that have a genuine passion for childcare and have a passion for growing a
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  business.
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  Secondly, we want people that are hands on and we want people that this is full time.
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  It really is full time to try to grow something.
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  You've got to give it your TLC as I had mentioned, And this is more than a thirty hour
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  a week, nine to three.
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  We're a 20 fourseven business.
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  One of the things that we do offer our franchises within the first year is that we
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  have 20 fourseven support.
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  They're not having to wake up and do jumping jacks at 2AM to answer the phone calls like I
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  did.
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  So we try to offer as much support as we possibly can, but it really is you've got to
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  give it your all and you've got to make a full time commitment.
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  That is a big ask.
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  Alright.
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  Alright.
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  But what is the buy in?
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  Like, if I wanted to buy a franchise, how much does it cost?
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  Yes.
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  Our fee is $60,000.
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  Okay.
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  What is the ramp up?
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  Like, is it you know, is your process to get onboard them?
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  Like from the time they pay you the 60,000, how fast are they answering phones and booking
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  nannies out?
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  I mean, like what's your ramp up time?
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, it's, it's really, if, if they can go quick, we can go quick over here.
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  I would say there's about a ninety day ramp up time.
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  We really want them to fully understand our processes and systems.
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  We also do a growth day out here at our corporate location in Reno.
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  And so we really want them to have a really, really good understanding for the business, the
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  procedures and the processes prior to them jumping in head first.
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  Okay, great.
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  All right.
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  So it seems like you're still in a, six, six, seven years in, you're still learning a whole
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  bunch of stuff, but what would you say is the best thing about being a franchisor?
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  What is the best thing for you?
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  Yeah, I think what's been most rewarding for me is seeing these other women that share the same
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  mission, vision, and values that I do and love the business.
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  And just seeing people create something that can really leave a legacy and leave something
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  behind to the next generation, I think is really special.
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  I've absolutely loved this journey, even though it's been very short, I'm really, really
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  enjoying it.
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  And I just really love seeing other people's lives change and growing such a strong business
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  in their area and helping their community.
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  Love it, love it.
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  All right, best business advice anyone's ever given you?
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  Best business advice anyone's ever given me is I am to be working on the business and not in
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  it.
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  Alright.
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  Great advice.
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  Thank you so much, Carson Wagner.
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  She is the president and founder of Lifetime of Love Nannies.
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  I am so excited to invite all of you to the NEXT ACCE CEO Summit, which is taking place
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  January.
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  If you are a woman who is 45 plus who has been out of work looking for work, girls, stop
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  looking for a boss.
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  It's time for you to become the CEO, and I can't wait to show you how.
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  So if you want information, you wanna grab your tickets, head over to
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  smallbizladyuniversity.com slash nextactceosummit because I want to help you
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  become the CEO and build wealth that will change your life in ways unimaginable.
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  So with that, I leave you all, and this is always true.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, your host.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.