Let's Break Franchising!

Why do your employees quit? It's because they do the same jobs/tasks over and over and it's boring. Make it interesting by gamifying they job and they will stay and look forward to coming to work. Everyone likes a challenge they can handle and have control over. I give you an idea on what worked to make scooping ice cream fun. What will you create to allow your teams to have fun? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

How much have you thought about the sincerity of your interactions with your customer base? If you are an average franchisee, you haven't thought much of it. Of course, you can be blind to why customers choose a competitor if you don't grade the sincerity of your business. However much time you spend understanding your own sincere approach to your business is equal to the sincere way your employees approach working with customers. Enjoy the podcast and use the information to improve your franchise. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

What red flags do you have in your business to alert you to problems? Are you paying attention or are you a key tosser? We cover many aspects of what to look for to ensure when things go wrong, and they will go wrong, that you have the ability to recognize it and correct it. Why do most businesses fail? Because, owners aren't paying attention to things that are small, but significant and can alert you to bigger problems BEFORE they happen. We cover problems extensively in my book, The Prom King Bought A Franchise. If you need a reference for how to tackle everyday problems, read the book. It will show you how to work with a problem to correct it, how to work around a problem you cannot change, and how to crush a problem to make it never come back. Let's Break Franchising! is all about how to make a better business for you, the franchisee. So, listen to the podcast, send questions to ASK@BusinessBulldog.com, and never stop making your business grow! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

Does anyone know you are a franchisee? Really? Do a little experiment. Go down the street or even within your own shopping center and ask people if there is a good place to buy whatever it is you are selling. You will be shocked at how many people don't even know you are there! Now, go back with a coupon, giveaway, introduction, free food or anything and ask them to visit you. Introduce yourself as the owner and that you are personally inviting them to visit your store TODAY. Be ready for a big, exhausting day because that personalized marketing is going to blow the doors off of your business. Stop creating a distance between you and your customers and start making a personal effort to be known as the franchise guy in town. LOTS of great things happen then...including record breaking sales. Listen in and then do your homework! Let me know how it goes with a quick text to (404) 962-0541. It comes directly to me and I will reply back. Thanks, Bob Griffin Business Bulldog Brand Founder --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

You did your Grand Opening and everything looked amazing! You staff was well trained and ready to help every customer. Then a few weeks pass and you lose some good employees and replace them with new hires. You follow the corporate training program and have them watch the webinars on how to work in your location. The second group of hires aren't as good as the first ones and customers notice. What Happened?!?! You didn't train your staff the same way and it shows all the way down to the profit line. We discuss how to train your staff, what you should do differently to get the best results, and how to know if it worked. You will have your employees train you on the tasks you trained them on and see for yourself if they understand what to do, how to do it, why to do it, when to do it, and (most importantly) if they WANT to do the task correctly. We cover the difference between training and disciplining. There is a time for everything, but you need to make sure you know that you did your part well in training staff. If it is just a bad fit for an employee, it should be easy to part ways as adults. It's time to review the second half of the job of being franchisee! Are you ready to break your store training? Got Questions? Text me directly (404) 962-0541 or email me at ask@BusinessBulldog.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

What is the most needed and least used part of your business? Tracking the numbers in the business. Yes, I mean sales, but I also mean costs and breakeven and how many more customers do you need to hit certain benchmarks. The numbers of your business are critical to knowing the health of your business. We discuss the basics and look at breakeven costs. We also look at what it takes to gain customers in a pandemic and how your breakeven changed since the beginning of the year. Are you still a franchise that keeps customers coming back? What is the value of one customer? How can you influence that one customer to bring in more customers? Does it change the value of that customer? Yes, it does. A customer who does word-of-mouth advertising for you because they love your store is worth plenty! How are you using your business culture to make that customer valuable? Business by the numbers means sales, costs, and growth. Tracking key performance measures each day makes all the difference between growing, struggling, and failing. Where are you on that scale? Listen in and enjoy an early morning podcast on the last day of Pandemic Year 2020! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

How do you challenge your competition when you both sell the exact same items or provide the exact same services? You hire crazy people, of course! The premise of this episode is to change the way you look at your employees and hire people who are comfortable in their skin. Layer on top of that the Bulldog Rules for Business and our proprietary way of both developing vision goals for teams and fundamentally changing the way leaders look and interact with their teams and you have a recipe for success. If you see your team as "replaceable", then you should be replaced. If you see your team as not motivated, then you should learn WHAT motivates them. If you can't see (vision goals) the goals and be able to explain what it looks like to exceed those goals, then how can you expect your team to buy-in? Listen in and find the parts of team building that will make the difference between customers going to your competition for convenience versus driving past them to go to your business where they like your team and want to spend their money with you! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

COVID is horrible. Not just as a virus but also as another speed bump in your business. More than 500,000 small businesses have already gone out of business and cannot pay back the stimulus money. Many of them are franchisees who got stuck in doing business the same way they always have and the customers have changed their habits. In order to survive any major changes, you have to think bigger, wider, and more creatively. I read the first part of chapter 4, The Brainiac Still Can't Figure It Out, to make the point that even really smart people are dying in business because they can't think of change as a good thing. If you know that the business model you use has worked for years and you don't want to change it, then you'll lose. Being smart isn't as valuable as acting smart. There is a disconnect between "knowing" and "doing". That's why the guy with no formal education can whup the guy who has been running businesses for decades. "If you're green you're growing. If you're ripe, you rot.", has been in my tool box for consulting for years. How you think of your franchise is how you and your team will treat it. Act like you have something to prove and that you want the entire community to rally behind you and, guess what, that will happen. Always think about growing your business. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

What are we really, really, good at? Complicating the crap out of everything. We all only have three resources to be successful - Time, Money, and Effort. If you add more garbage to doing the basics of running your franchise than you need, you are stealing from yourself. We look at a couple specific areas where we spend too much time and limit our ability to earn more money. Focusing in on clearing up time and how you use that time to grow your franchise locations is critical to adding profits. Stop complicating everything and get back to what makes sense. Use your TME to make your business grow and keep you from being that crazy owner we cross the street to avoid! Listen, take notes, and email us at Questions@BusinessBulldog.com. If you are lucky, we may interview YOU for one of our podcasts. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

How many times a day does a marketing company come to your business, email, or call you to tell you about how much Return on Investment (ROI) you would get if you just spent money with them? I average around 15 per day. Just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with it. I don't know if they can get you a "240% Return on Your Investment" or if they are full of it. Maybe they can.  Here's the deal, I want you to look at the bigger ROI. The one that builds your business and grows your brand within the brand. You have limited resources. You only have so much TIME, MONEY, and EFFORT. Spend it wisely.  What would the CEO or President of your franchise say about your business? Would he be wowed or would he even remember you?  ROI is your entire investment.  How are you investing your time each day? How are you spending your efforts each day? How are you spending your money? Are you growing your brand or are you spending to maintain? **Here's a hint** You aren't maintaining...you are failing slower. Look at your entire spend when you look at ROI. That includes how you spend your time, money and effort at home. If you "have to spend more time at work than at home" because you can't have the standard of living if you take time to enjoy being with your family, you are DOING IT WRONG!  Franchising is great when it is done right. Take the time to review your ROI. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

What's been missing in franchising? Women leaders to take the businesses to the next level! Elizabeth Denham, publisher for The Franchise Woman magazine, joins us again just as she is ready to publish the premier issue of the magazine. We cover the leaders who pack the magazine full of information, tips, and guidance for women and men in franchising. Yes, men should read the magazine too! Many franchises are stuck in an old, men-only mindset with a few women who join their husbands or partner in a male-dominated franchise. The next phase of franchise growth is centered on women leading the charge and changing the business model in amazing ways that wrap the community into the profitability of each location. Listen in to get a look at The Franchise Woman magazine and check out the social media accounts that allow you to give feedback and connect with many of the writers...including our host, Bob Griffin. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefranchisewoman/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WomanFranchise LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/40963166/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefranchisewomanmagazine/ Many thanks go to Elizabeth for breaking franchising and highlighting women in franchising! Now, Let's Break Franchising! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

Accounting is not the first thing most people think of when they consider buying into a franchise. It is, however, one of the MOST important elements of being a business owner. Without the data to show you how your franchise location is doing, you are guessing at the health of the business. Georgetta Rice, founder and partner of Willis + Rice Accounting, takes the time to cover important requirements for franchisees and makes it both interesting and easy to understand in plain language. We cover a lot of topics including what you need to have up-to-date to know how your business is operating and how profitable it is. Our conversation covers some of the dangers of not using a CPA to ensure your books are correctly and legally recorded. Georgetta is willing to help any franchisee who has a question on accounting. If you have multiple locations, you really need to ensure your books are in order! Schedule an appointment with Georgetta Rice today: https://go.oncehub.com/georgetta1 Contact info: Office phone: (678)793-4461 Email: georgetta@willisricetax.com Website: www.willisricetax.com LinkedIn: Georgetta Rice Georgetta Rice is the owner of Willis + Rice Tax and Accounting Firm in Atlanta, GA. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Accountancy from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. Willis + Rice Tax and Accounting provides tax and accounting services to small businesses across the United States. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

Franchising had a quiet revolution and the good-old-boys-club didn't even notice. Women in franchising has grown tremendously in the last few years and it doesn't look like it is slowing down. The data doesn't lie and franchisors need to open their eyes to what is happening. Support for women in leadership positions is at an all-time high and we fully support it. Elizabeth Denham, the publisher of The Franchise Woman magazine, is a force in her own right. She started The Franchise Woman magazine to help female owners build strong franchises and to help everyone understand the strength of female ownership. This isn't a man vs. woman thing. It is very much about female-led growth in an industry that has not catered to or targeted women as buyers or as leaders. The amount of information that can be learned and implemented from a different outlook can grow the internal culture of a franchise and develop sales that were not there before this revolution happened. We are honored to have Elizabeth on Let's Break Franchising! and look forward to being a subscriber to The Franchise Woman magazine which has it's first printing in November 2019. Get your subscription today! The Franchise Woman Website The Franchise Woman Media Kit --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

What do you do when your corporate office decides to hand over the reins of the company to the Marketing Department? We see it all the time with franchises. They aren't getting the press they want to show off how great a brand they are, so they do some insipid marketing stunt that makes the franchisees wonder who the hell is in charge of their marketing dollars. If it isn't backpacks with a taco chain logo stamped all over it, it's a million dollar ice cream cone made from gold and diamonds (yeah, that actually happened). As usual, we turn the bad into the best by looking at the problem from a different angle. If left to the franchisor, each franchisee would get a backpack for Christmas presents for years to come. Instead, we turn the problem into a community marketing tactic and drive sales back into your stores. Even if you are part of that taco chain, the problem with franchise chains is that they forget the reason they are there to support you and then they waste your Time, Money, and Effort (TME). Do NOT let them steal your happiness in being a franchisee. Find a way to turn it around and smile while the corporate brand is firing stupid executives and marketing managers. Send pictures of ways you turned a problem the franchisor presented to you around. Email us at Questions@BusinessBulldog.com Cheers! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

We had the wonderful opportunity to interview a true maverick in franchising for this episode of Let's Break Franchising!. Tara Murphy of Primp and Play did what many people want to do, but don't have the courage, background in business, or the backing of a family that was eager to see her franchise start and grow. Having spent 20 years in marketing for television, entertainment, and consumer goods, Tara wanted to work closer to her family. All franchises need to have a marketing/sales focus or it will not attract customers or franchisees. Tara was well prepared when she decided that a spa where families could bring children and have everyone feel better and relax. Her work targeting television shows to children helps her find opportunities that a CEO without a background in working with families wouldn't see. Tara is an strong leader in the good-ole-boy franchise industry. She doesn't let anything hold her back from building her brand and welcoming in the right franchisees. We cover a lot of ground and will be having her back for another interview on the development of Primp and Play from a franchisee's perspective. Primp and Play is the first family spa in franchising. It is also a place where your entire family can enjoy an afternoon together and have Mom get a massage, the kids get to do crafts, and Dad can take a class to learn how to braid his daughter's hair. Of course, Dads can get a massage as well. Primp and Play is a business built to help people take care of themselves in a chaotic world. For Primp and Play franchisees, the number of cost centers where you can earn more sales not limited like a traditional spa! You can use the craft area for birthday parties for kids The front of the store has space where you can have local crafts sell on consignment Up-selling massage offerings before or during a visit Mobility to bring massage and craft services to a location If you are looking for a franchise where you can still be with your family, Primp and Play is a great option. Visit https://primpandplay.com/franchise/ for franchise opportunities! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

Bullies are a true pain in the buttocks, but we have to deal with them. From the time you were in school until today, you've encountered bullies of all types and not one of them is worth spending time, money, or effort helping. So, stop helping the bullies in your life and in your business. This episode covers how to move a bully out of your way and how to plan to deal with one BEFORE he or she shows up at your front counter. Don't be intimidated! Take control and own your franchise! No Damn Bully is going to get in your way after listening to this podcast. As always, there's homework to get your team ready. Grab a comfortable chair and a way to take notes. We are going to kick that damn bully out! Enjoy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

Looking at your franchise from a different perspective can drive sales and growth. On this episode of Let's Break Franchising! we talk about using the basic business plan of a garage band to grow your brand within the brand and become the place where customers feel ownership. We cover a lot in a short time. Practice makes perfect and a garage band practices as often as they can. Why don't you? You see, simple plans make for dramatic changes that build your business and strengthen your team. Don't miss this episode and be ready to start planning to act more like a garage band. Practice, create your image, build your sound, and market cheaply, but effectively. If four teenagers in a dirty garage can create a world-famous brand, why can't you? As always, we stay firmly within the boundaries of your Franchise Agreement. Don't worry about breaking the rules. We only break the patterns that keep you from being the best, most successful franchisee within your brand. Have fun with the concept and let us know how it's going! Email us at Questions@BusinessBulldog.com. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support

We all want customers, but what does that really mean? We use Business Bulldog's proprietary system of Total Budgeting to find out what is needed to take a person from trying out your services or products to loyal customer and raving fan. There are a lot of moving parts when you operate a franchise. Missing any one of the items we discuss on this podcast can leave you without enough paying customers to stay in business. Listen carefully and take notes! All of our episodes are geared around breaking apart one item that makes a franchise operate and finding our why it works and what resources are required to make it work right every time. We love franchising and want all franchisees to be profitable. Being a business owner is difficult. Having someone who can talk you through the process of being the best is critical. Bob Griffin, our founder and CEO, has over 26 years of helping franchises grow and become legacy businesses. Bob has helped struggling franchises grow to profitability and seen great big brands fail when they don't listen to the simple, effective advice he espouses. Join us anytime you need a boost to break the plateaus and grow week after week, year after year. Let's go break something! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-break-franchising/support