So, many corporate executives have worked diligently during their careers and have had little opportunity or time to explore self employment business opportunities. So, Wayne, what would you say is the single most important consideration for executives considering a business investment? How and when should they begin planning?

Wayne Mann

Well, like I said, I think the most important thing is to, first of all, recognize the fact that the franchise concept is intended to be as universally applicable as possible. So in other words, it sounds counterintuitive, but the franchise owner would prefer that you know nothing about the business. Primarily because a franchise concept is successful when the franchisee is able to follow the recipe, every franchise has a specific role and the franchiser has a specific recipe in terms of success. The advantage and value of franchising is really within the world of systems, processes and procedures. So when somebody is considering franchising, first of all, they don't necessarily have to have had business experience in all facets of the business, the systems, processes and procedures provided by the franchise, or will certainly cover off all of the details required to run the business successfully. It's just simply a matter of of providing themselves with an opportunity to do some research and as I said earlier, to take a look at themselves, we are all at different stages of our lives. Some are still raising children. Some are empty nesters, some are people that are fairly high up in the corporate world and are feeling a little vulnerable in the latter, if you will, and are looking for solutions. And I think this is simply another option. We're not buying a job. That's certainly not the way I communicate and interact with my clients. We are simply looking at franchising as an investment opportunity and the differentiation between franchising as an investment and say perhaps going to a financial adviser or brokerage house is that of the franchisee. The investor in this particular case has an active role in the outcome. And the amount of active, rather, or the amount of time that an individual wants to invest in their business can vary depending on the business itself. And that being a specific requirement of the franchisee, in this case, the investor. So, as I said, some people want to be involved in their business on a day to day basis, full time. Others would like to be semi absentee, where they're managing their business through a manager and they're maintaining their career. And or other options. Long winded answer, but basically it's really giving yourself permission to investigate an option that perhaps you discounted as being inappropriate in the past.

Maureen Farmer

So, when we think about these options that we may or may not be aware of, can we first focus on investment levels? Like what, for example, is the entry level of investment for someone considering a franchise option, say, I don't know, from the ground to the ceiling?

Wayne Mann

OK. Thirty thousand dollars, I would say, would be the entry level and the way of relating the investment to the businesses, that the less money you have to invest, the more personal involvement you are going to be required within the recipe for that particular business. So if you're investing 30 to 30,000 to 50,000 dollars, the expectation on the part of the franchisor is that you as a franchisee are going to be full time, actively involved in your business. You don't have the infrastructure necessarily, nor do you have the team to support you. So typically, it's a business that you are managing. You might hire people, you might have employees, but you are typically the little engine, you are primarily involved in and finding clients and managing your team depending on the nature of the business. There are businesses that are available for four hundred thousand to millions. And as I said earlier, you might be the type of an individual that wants to bring an American concept we'll say to Canada for the very first time. And so buying the rights for the entire country and becoming a master franchisee is an option for a for people like that. And it certainly is something that requires quite a bit of investment in terms of dollars and time. So the investment level can start fairly modestly. The franchise owner wants the investor to have a minimum of cash. They emphasize and advise for startup capital. Typically eight months to a year is what I recommend. So I encourage people to look at their monthly budgets, taking into consideration food like, you know, car insurance, overheads, food, you know, mortgages, et cetera, et cetera. What does it cost you to run your house on a monthly basis? And let's say for the sake of this call, it's 5000 dollars a month. If you put eight months away, say, 40000 dollars, and that takes care of all of the responsibilities of the home, then you're not putting yourself and your business under premature pressure to perform before it's ready. So the franchise owner wants you to be successful because if you are successful, they're successful, they participate in your performance, sales performance and profit performance. So their job is to see the business five to 10 years out, and your job is to handle the business on a day to day basis. And between those two perspectives, hopefully the business can be successful.

Maureen Farmer

So, what would you say? I mean, you've got your working capital set aside, so you've got that process, you know, supposing—fast forward you're now in the business, what would you identify as maybe the top two or three critical success factors for business ownership under a franchise model?

Wayne Mann

Aligning yourself with a business that has a role that you will feel comfortable with to perform. And when I look at all the franchise concepts out there, and there are over 3000 right now in the marketplace. When you strip it all down to what is the typical role of a franchisee within those models, it's...you're either a salesperson and being sort of the representative or ambassador of your company, you're interfacing and interacting with customers and you're meeting them perhaps in their home or in their business, and you're talking about the goods and services that you offer. The other role is one of administrator. So people that are not comfortable with sales as an example, to gravitate towards retail businesses where they're not required to find their clients, supposedly find them through advertising and share a voice and brand awareness. So choosing which of those two roles you might be most comfortable with is important in terms of the process, understanding your lifestyle requirements, if you want to spend time at the cottage every weekend or your perhaps an immigrant that wants to go home to your native country for extended periods of time, those requirements can also come into play in terms of the type of business that you choose. If you happen to be a micromanager as an example and you want to be away from your business for six months, perhaps having a retail business might not be the most appropriate, given the fact that you're open seven days a week and it's got a lot of moving parts and the fear and concern and stress over what's going on in your business might interfere with your private life. So that's another factor in terms of choosing the right business for you, because I always say to my clients, all puppies are cute, but some of them turn out to be one hundred and fifty pound dogs. And I think the third qualification, if you will, would be, be realistic in terms of what the outcomes are that you're expecting...that you expect from the investment. Everybody wants to invest, you know, a thousand dollars and make a million.

So, we have to be realistic in terms of what the business is capable of providing and understanding that as an employee, the only tax difference you have really is an RRSP. In the case of business ownership, there are a variety of different, very legal, very acceptable expenses that can be applied to the business. That in total can represent a significant amount of savings for a person, so when I talk to people about their corporate salary, they always seem to answer in gross numbers. I make one hundred thousand. You probably don't. You're lucky if you bring home 80 or 85. And there are no, as I said, tax incentives to get in a business, you could be making the same eighty five and be a heck of a lot better off. Financially, ultimately. So there's those considerations as well.

Maureen Farmer

So, once we're in the business, we've got our working capital and we've got our business plan going, we're executing on the business plan, there are eight to twelve months and we're ready to go into full execution mode. What are the most vulnerable times during that phase for the franchise?

Wayne Mann

There really isn't. I mean, by that point in time, you first of all, you're buying a successful formula. So, if you've done your due diligence, which working with a person like myself, that's what it's all about. It's not about buying anything. It's about first of all, franchises aren't for sale. They are awarded. And that's an interesting differentiation because most of us that grew up in North America are used to being consumers. And if we have the money, we can buy it. Nobody ever says, no, I'm sorry, I'm not going to sell that to you because I don't think you're an appropriate purchaser. But that can very well happen and does happen in the world of franchising where the franchise owner might not consider you to be an appropriate ambassador or a representative of their brand, their culture and their reputation. So the franchise, first and foremost is is a byproduct of an interview process between two potential business partners. And so if you've gone through that process correctly and if you've taken the opportunity of not only speaking with your business partner, the franchise owner, but the unique aspect of this process is also that you get to speak to franchisees. And legally, the franchisor has to provide you with a document which is called the franchise disclosure document, within that document, the rules of engagement between you and them and also whether they've ever been sued in a class action or otherwise has to be indicated in that document and also the names and contact information of the franchisees. So you are encouraged, certainly as my client, to speak with as many franchisees as possible to learn what a typical day in the life will be prior to. I usually encourage my clients to speak to the franchisee of the year so that we can understand how high is high. Talk to a couple of people that are doing well and a couple of people that are new or struggling. So that my client can get his broader perspective as possible on the business itself. So by the time one year goes by, if you've chosen correctly in terms of the franchise that's most suitable for your income, lifestyle, wealth and equity goals, the business should be operating, should be doing well or as well as can be expected after a year. And that's usually pretty well laid out for you as far as the franchise law is concerned. They've been in business for a number of years. They know what the expectations should be in year one, year two, year three, and if you're tracking properly, you should be doing well and hopefully appreciating that we're experiencing the level of success expected at that time.

Maureen Farmer

So, you mentioned that there are more than 3000 franchise concepts available in the marketplace today, which is really quite surprising to me anyway, I didn't realize that there were that many. So it sounds to me that solid management skills are important in order to get a turnkey business up and running. I mean, you have to have some business savvy in order to do so. What if you don't have those skills? Do owners or franchisees ever hire general managers to manage those businesses on their behalf?

Wayne Mann

They can. In most cases, it's because the franchise model has built within the need for a manager. But in the case where let's say you are the franchisee and you've gotten yourself involved in a business that requires you to be a salesperson as an example. And your business achieves a certain level of success and it's just too much for you to handle all by yourself, then certainly you can hire somebody. The franchise owner typically offers training, similar training to what you received when you went through their respective educational process to prepare you for the franchisee role. So, yes, you can hire different people depending on your ability to pay them in certain cases where the business, the franchise requires you personally to be involved in the business, then their expectation is that you will be and if you abdicate that responsibility that you do so, you know, with a certain amount of risk, because of your personal involvement being an element of the relationship that's expected, having fear, the whole purpose of involving yourself with the franchise is because the systems, processes and procedures that most independent startup businesses never seem to evolve or develop for themselves and ultimately create their demise are provided. So let's use the analogy of buying a car, whether you're buying a Rolls-Royce or the cheapest car that's out there or a BMW, it doesn't matter the brand or the type of car or how much horsepower it has. The role of the driver is the same. You open the door, you sit in the seat, you steer the steering wheel, you press on the brake and gas. You press a button to start it or turn the key and the metrics that are required to understand whether you're going too fast or you need gas or oil. It's all pretty simple. Same thing with the franchise, whether you're selling pizza or frozen yogurt or whatever you're doing out there, the business itself provides the systems, the processes, the procedures, the metrics, the visibility and the specific definition of the role you're expected to play. And with food, obviously, the commitment to which vendor to buy the product from and to follow the specifics of the recipe are critical. But in service businesses like my own as an example, there's plenty of opportunity within the, quote, systems and processes and procedures to apply your own personality. So you're not being asked to be a robot, you're asked to follow specifics, more critical in the food business than, say, other businesses.

Maureen Farmer

So, that brings me to the next question, so what are the top benefits, which type of franchise arrangement? And I realize there are a lot of different arrangements, but maybe at the top, maybe two or three. What would you say are the top benefits of those top two or three that come to mind?

Wayne Mann

I think the benefits are better stated, if you understand...we talked about 3000 different options. Those three thousand are broken into four categories. And I think if I explained the four categories a little, then we could talk more...

Maureen Farmer

OK, that's great. Yeah, that's perfect

Wayne Mann

So, let's take the most obvious category, retail. Everybody on this call has had some interaction with a retail store, I would imagine. So retail is location, location, location. Retail is the most expensive because everybody's looking for the same footprint and everybody wants to be beside a large box store or some traffic building. So regardless of what your product or services is being on retail street, you want maximum visibility. You're open seven days a week. You typically pay minimum wage to your staff. So there's an expectation of a fairly high turnover in staff. And the role of the franchisee in that particular business is one of administrative. You're not out there on the corner with the sandwich board on your back. You're in the back room typically, and you're making sure that the products, food or otherwise, that you're serving or selling is in an appropriate quantity so that you're not running out of it and you have the right amount of staff that are properly trained to serve your customers. So the benefits of retail are you're not looking for the customer. The customer is finding you. You're paying for that privilege, mind you, through advertising and rent, et cetera, et cetera. But for people that are are looking for conventional franchise investments, then the opportunity is there in retail. And typically, if you want to make some serious money, the opportunity also is there for owning more than one.

The second category of franchising is business to business. The business to business franchises or franchises that cater to other business owners. So sign companies, IT companies, scrap paper, eco type of businesses that cater to other businesses. So, if you do have a physical location requirement, then it's not on retail street, it doesn't have to be on retail street. So it can be in a less expensive industrial park setting. Your customers typically not coming to your environment, but if they do, they have a level of expectation in terms of what the business is going to look like and what kind of services are going to be offered. The advantage for the franchisee is that you're typically working Monday to Friday with weekends off. So spending time with your kids or coaching a hockey team or whatever is important to you and you don't mind being the ambassador of your company because that's a business to business owner or franchisee. The expectation is that you are going to be the one that goes out and meets the business owners to talk to them about the goods and services you offer and hopefully create a relationship that's based on trust and confidence, if you will. And so the advantage is that businesses, we can throw off less overhead, but you have to be comfortable in a sales role in order to be comfortable in that type of business.

The third business category, which is probably the most popular right now, is mobile businesses. And mobile being that you're bringing the goods or the services that your business offers to the customer in their home. So examples of that could be painting lawn care, could be elder care, which is a huge sector that's happening right now. I'll get into that in a couple of seconds. But what's happening in the GTA in particular, and most countries, most of the towns is that people are getting older. The boomers are getting older. They're empty nesters. And a lot of cases, they don't want to be a burden for their family. So they're looking for people and services to help them as they age and the things that they used to have no problem doing or spending time with. Now, they would prefer to have somebody else do it for them. In the case of mom and dad, you know, the people that are raising children in most cases that both parents work. So they are also impoverished between hockey practices or soccer or whatever the kids are involved in. There never seems to be enough time to do the things that you want to do around the house, etc.. So a lot of people are looking for people to come into their home and provide those services. The franchisee in this particular case is not expected to paint or cut the grass or do any of the physical work. Their role is to meet with the client, establish an estimate for the services required, and either have their own team of people that they've hired or people that they've outsourced the responsibility to actually perform the actual work. So case in point, with the painting company, painters typically enjoy painting, but they're not really comfortable in terms of finding clients. So the painting franchise is the franchisee in this particular case meets with the customer, is comfortable going through and having that sort of sales background. And once the requirements are determined, he or she then passes the invoice or the work request to the third party painting company. And they do the work, they show up with the appropriate uniforms and the appropriate signage on their vehicles for the customer doesn't know that they're not the employees. They're buying the reputation of the actual painting company.

The last category is home based businesses, mine, as an example, is a home based business. I work for my office in my home. I speak to people on the telephone. And if I'm not working, nobody's working in my business.

Maureen Farmer

So, let's stop there for just a second, because I just want to make sure that everybody on the call is aware of your own business model, because I myself, who is really proud of the fact that I thought I knew of every business model out there until you and I met, I didn't realize that franchised franchises fall under under this model. So, just maybe if you could take a second to describe your own practice and where you fit in in terms of the whole franchise model.

Wayne Mann

So, when I left when I retired from Canadian Tire, I took a look at myself, which is what I'm suggesting everybody do...the look in the mirror, if you will, and realize that what I really enjoyed about my career and what I wanted to continue to do in some capacity was mentoring, coaching, helping people maximize this one time, never to be repeated, often called life. And so I wanted to figure out how I could go through that process. And I met this gentleman that I used to work with at Canadian Tire, who had found the franchise that I now associated with, called the Entrepreneur's Source. And we are not a broker company. There are brokers out there that does third party sales for franchisees. And they have a portfolio of a certain amount of franchises and their job is to be the sales force. The approach that we've taken within our franchise is that we don't work for the franchise...we assist our clients. To go through an investigative process that may in many cases and many times ends up with the person not going forward with a franchise, but certainly understanding and knowing what that option is better than they did before they started. So my franchise is really all about coaching people, helping people to first and foremost take a look inside themselves in terms of what they're trying to accomplish. As I mentioned earlier, and the franchise community understands, we've been in business for 32 years. So the franchise community understands our business model, that we are coaches, we're not salespeople. So they contact us and they basically say, listen, we've developed the profile  of the kind of person that we believe would be very successful within our model. And so they share that profile with us and they say if you happen to be talking with someone that happens to suit that profile and you recommend that person to us to go through the process of discovery with our business model and they go forward, we will provide you with a finder's fee. So I don't charge my clients for my services. I get paid if my client ultimately finds an appropriate business that suits their income, lifestyle, wealth and equity goals and they align with an appropriate franchise.

So, the only way I try to relate what I do to people that really never had an exposure like yourself before is think of working with a real estate agent. You sit down with your real estate agent, you talk about all the amenities that you're looking for to buy three bedrooms, finished basement, walk to school, access to public transportation, back onto a green space, the company bank is pre-approved for a mortgage of four hundred thousand dollars. And I want to live in Markham or wherever. And so basically, your real estate agent on your behalf now scours the marketplace for residences that fit your requirements. And very, very, very seldom do you find everything you're looking for. But certainly you would consider doing that rather than driving up and down every street in the neighbourhood looking to see whether there's any houses for sale. So that's really the service that I offer. I also never knew that such a business existed before this colleague of mine introduced me to this business. But in terms of what I was trying to accomplish, it provides me with an opportunity to coach and mentor people. I'm not a salesman. I don't want to be selling businesses. I don't want to have that sort of relationship with my client. I know enough about the business to be able to talk at a very, very high level about it. But the micro level details that are required for my client to make an informed decision about a fairly significant investment. That information comes from conversations with the franchisor and the franchisees. What we do on an ongoing basis through this investigative process, which in some cases can take up to three months, we meet on a minimum of once per week and our time together is really all about debriefing. What are you learning? What kind of questions are you asking? What concerns do you still have? What information do you still feel uncomfortable with or need more of? And so we formulate some questions and then we go back to the source being either the franchise or the franchisees and hopefully come up with the answers that we're looking for. In most cases, I offer my clients two or three businesses, three to typically to look at. I'm not expecting them to go forward with three businesses, quite frankly. I'm not expecting to go forward with any. But every time we say no to a business, we're going to say no, hopefully because we've done our due diligence, we ask the right questions and the discovery process has unfolded aspects about that business that aren't appropriate. But what it's doing, though, is every time we say no, we're getting closer to an understanding of what it will take to say yes. So it's very much a safe space that I'm offering in terms of my clients and not forcing them to make a decision. There's no pen in their hand. There's no money involved. But there is  an expectation of respect for people's time. And because it is an interview process between two potential business partners, I coach my clients to be as professional as possible to treat the people that are providing them with the information that they're going to need to make an informed decision with the respect that they deserve and and to be as open minded as possible. We all have opinions. We all have aunts and uncles and cousins and people who care for us that are concerned about our well-being and don't want us to risk everything or don't want us to get ripped off, etc. So what I'm trying to do is provide a safe space where people can do their homework, do their investigations and come to whatever conclusions that makes sense for them

Maureen Farmer

Wayne, if somebody wanted to work with you to just do a discovery session with you, what would that look like? Would they call you? Would they email you? How does that work?

Wayne Mann

Well, they could call me or email me. I have the luxury of being able to work with anybody on planet Earth as long as they have a telephone and a computer. I don't have any territories necessarily associated with my business. So I do have clients from other countries that are immigrating to Canada and would like to have a business before they show up. So phoning me or contacting me by email is certainly appropriate. The process would be we'd spend a couple...all of the conversations and all of the interactions with me are done on the telephone. The people that you would ultimately want to meet face to face should you decide to go forward and should they decide to go forward with you, would be the franchisor. But my process is really to have a couple of phone calls, preferably with and I extend the invitation to anybody calling me that if they are married or have a significant other in their life...regardless of whether that person is going to be involved in the business or not, I always say the business is going to come home every night for supper. So one way or the other, the business will affect everybody. So if that person wants to be involved in the conversations, I invite them to participate as your firsthand and to hopefully be supportive of the process.

Maureen Farmer

And just to be clear as well, that initial conversation with you, there is no upfront cost or fees. Is that correct?

Wayne Mann

Correct.

Maureen Farmer

Is there a contract with you whatsoever?

Wayne Mann

No, there's a couple of forms that my clients would fill out that ultimately would be introductory forms that we would send to the franchisors, but no information that would be shared with me. I have a questionnaire on our database that helps us provide some details to build this unique profile that we would use as selection criteria. But any information shared with me will not be shared with anybody without that person's written permission. And there's no information...we do require some financial information, but nothing that could be construed in any way of being identity theft or any of that kind of stuff. Franchisors want to know before they invest a lot of their time that at the very least you can afford the model should both parties decide to go forward. Of course, very high level information is what we're looking for as far as financials to a minimum amount of cash and net worth. That's about all that we need.

Maureen Farmer

OK, that's great, so you mentioned that your process with your client is about three months long to a determination of, you know, go or no go or what franchise model am I going to apply for when we're thinking about the planning process. And a lot of my clients are you know, they are 18 months to retirement, you know, two years. When should they have that conversation with you or does it depend?

Wayne Mann

Well, I think that. You know, spending the time to understand what the options are is simply that I mean, you're spending time to understand options of that franchise and certainly we would want you to go forward if it was mutually agreed to do so as soon as possible. But people do investigate in advance or if somebody's going to retire in 12 months or 18 months or whatever the case may be, then certainly I would probably suggest that we spend some time a little closer, say, six months away. Three months is not necessarily the norm. It's just a ballpark figure that I give people. I've worked with people that say yes to a business in three weeks. So, we're all different and all have different senses of urgency. We all have different requirements of information. So, some people are analytical. They can use that term, they want to know too much, and other people want to make decisions probably faster than they should. So as a coach, I try to reach a balance so that people can definitely take advantage of the information that is available without spending too much time in analytical mode. So the sort of time frame can vary.

Maureen Farmer

In the interest of transparency here, I just want to be clear in terms of how you make a living doing this. Can you explain that a little bit in more detail about how you get compensated for your time?

Wayne Mann

Two hundred and fifty of us throughout the US and Canada that are associated as business coaches with the Entrepreneur Source. Franchise laws will approach us and say, as I said earlier, they have a profile...if we're talking to somebody that suits the profile...So, it is conceivable that I can work with someone I don't charge for my services. There is no hidden fees. It's a situation where in order for me to invest my time, I need to, through conversation, understand that the individual that I'm working with is not going...I'm not committing them to anything other than if you're interested in doing this and spending the time, you have to spend the time to do it. And you have to appear to your potential business partner as the one who's driving the bus. OK, I'm not going to fool anybody kicking and screaming in the franchise or certainly not going to run after anybody. Sure, the person has to be serious about trying to learn. They do have that willingness to do that. And I'm willing to work with them. It is conceivable at the end of three months or two months or one month, "you know what? I don't think I want to go forward with this", and that's fine. I mean, if the person has learned something that they didn't know, I'm OK with that. Perhaps they can refer me to a family member or a friend or a colleague. But in either case, that's part of my business. Like the real estate agent, you can take people around and show them twenty five houses and then at the last minute they might decide to rent an apartment. Sure. And that's just the cost of doing business.

Maureen Farmer

Excellent!