How to Identify the "Bad Sidekick" in Franchising - Franchising 101 - Episode 300

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If you are working with somebody and they are not spending an enormous amount of time to get to know you and probably honestly get you outside your comfort zone a little bit in that get to know process. If they are sending you, you say, I like this and that's all they send you. Again, not malicious, just lazy. and we are missing all of these other possibilities out there that could be the best thing for you.

Hello, everyone, and thanks for tuning in to the latest edition of Francoach's Franchising 101 podcast. I am Tim Parmeter, founder and CEO of Francoach and your podcast host. Today, I got some good things to talk about today and we also want to celebrate. This is episode number 300 of the Franchising 101 podcast.

So I feel like there should be some balloons or somebody cheer or, I don't know, send me some cake or something. But first and foremost, thank you to everybody who has listened, who has kept this moving forward. There have been literally almost 5 million downloads of this episode or this show over the years on all the different podcast platforms, on YouTube, everywhere. And for all the people that have reached out over the years to talk more, to get a chance to work with our team at FranCoach, thank you so much.

The first episode of this was back in 2020. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I know what you're saying. Do you now?

I mean, listen to the first couple more so. But it was really an opportunity to just create some non-written content for Francoach, for our team, for our clients. And then next thing I knew is kind of early on in 2021, this really kind of morphed into a weekly podcast. We got an episode dropping every Thursday, maybe 50 weeks out of the year.

There's usually a couple somewhere in there, something slips or whatever, but pretty much a weekly thing every year. I always greatly appreciate the feedback that we get from people that have found this educational franchising 101. We're here to educate people on this. So I've got a definite topic today, but I want to start with kind of like, there's so much that has changed over the last now six years since we've done this and really 12 since I've been in the industry.

Some things have kind of stayed the same, right? Franchising is still, no matter what is going on in the world, in the economy, whatever it might be, it is a place with so much potential for people to have a chance to change their life. It's giving people an opportunity, many times an opportunity that they did not think was possible, for them to take control of their lives personally, professionally, with working for themselves. but with franchising, not by themselves.

The happiness quotient of an entrepreneur is always higher than an employee because we are in control of everything we are doing. Does not mean every day is rainbows and unicorns, folks, not even remotely. And then the ceiling financially is always so much higher working for yourself versus working for somebody else. If there is a downside, and this is one that has not really changed over the years, is that there's kind of no one in charge of franchising.

This is a billion-dollar industry, and organizationally, everybody's asleep at the wheel. The sleepiness at the wheel does cause for there to be bad players. And like every single industry out there, there are some in franchising. because of, in many ways, the lack of oversight.

These bad players are allowed to kind of get away with it. It's like a child that we don't discipline and they can't figure out why they grow up to be a nightmare. And then when others see that behavior not controlled in any way, shape, or form and the bad players are getting away with the behavior, you're starting to see a few more people trying to emulate that. And there are many ways in which this can happen.

And I'm going to give you insight into one of them today. And it's what we call, it's called the sidekick method. So we're going to talk about this, what it is, how to identify it, and how to protect yourself from it. That is coming up here on episode 300, right after a quick reminder of who we are at FranCoach.

FranCoach is the premier franchise consulting firm Our number one goal is to properly educate you on franchise ownership to determine if you should own one. And if so, we're going to help you find your absolute best fit. Our educational approach ensures we focus on the client's best interest. We are not here to sell you a franchise.

In fact, we don't sell anything. Finding the best franchise to own is an incredibly personalized and individualized process. that can only work with a team of experts focused on what is truly most important. That's you.

Francoach, our services are always 100% free to use. So reach out to our team, click the QR code, or find us at francoach.net. Now, let's get back to the show.

All right, folks, we are back on episode 300 of the Franchising 101 podcast. and we're going to talk about something I want you to be aware of. If for some reason you're going through a process of looking at a franchise and not working with Fran Coach, I mean, what the hell were you thinking? But don't, never fear, we are here.

It is never too late. And I've got a story to talk to you about that here in a moment. But we're talking about kind of the, what is the, when we talk about the kind of like the sidekick method? Well, what exactly is a sidekick?

Well, a sidekick by definition is a kind of close companion, really kind of an assistant or associate who basically accompanies and supports a more prominent, more powerful, more important person, or perhaps thing. The sidekick is describing someone who acts as a loyal helper, partner, or trusted confidant to that more prominent, powerful important person or thing um it's robin to batman it is uh smithers to mr burns um i literally looked this up and they're like uh one thing had the most um well-known sidekick of all like again if you're under the age of probably 50 google this but ed mcmahon and johnny carson it's chewy it's han solo um the sidekick is loyal to to their companion above all other things right and all of those things like the the sidekick would basically give up anything their life for that their their person right one thing to remember about sidekicks unless the sidekick is your sidekick, their loyalties are not to you.

Robin may want to help me, but if it's helped me or helped Batman, right? Like Smithers, like again, they are loyal to, the sidekick is loyal to their person or thing. So in franchising, how does this work? So it's kind of understanding the good players from the bad, right?

And so, and again, if you are working with somebody other than Fran coach, again, call us, we can save the day. So here's some things to think about to understand where that, if you're working with another broker or you're on your own, but really this is kind of if you're working with another franchise broker, how do you know, are they loyal to you or are they the sidekick of something else? If you were introduced to brands by another broker and they are all or several of them are from the same parent company?

I don't want to say that's a red flag, that's a yellow flag. Are you introduced to brands and the person you're talking to, their email address has a different domain than the franchisor, okay? What if there are similar email domains that are not the same as the franchisor? Or what if that person introduced you to brands that are all in the same industry.

These are things that are not necessarily red flags, but certainly yellow. So why are these things bad? Well, if somebody introduces you to franchises that are all in the same industry, frankly, that's just lazy. They have done nothing to get to know you.

You came in and said, I have always done, I've always been in healthcare. Therefore, I want to own a senior care franchise and it's all you say. It's what you're interested in. They go, okay, here's five senior care franchises.

Go. How in the world do you know that that is the right thing? I cannot even begin to tell you. I've been doing this for 12 years and this is really key.

People do not believe me at the beginning, but it happens almost every single time. When people start a franchise that work with us and are doing this the right way, they start a franchise that is in the franchises in an industry that they have little to no experience in. Number one, number two, it is a franchise or industry that was not really on their radar before they got started with us. And number three, it's oftentimes something they did not even know existed.

Okay. Let that sit with you for a second. That is a lot. And that happens almost every single time.

Why? Because we are going through multiple steps to really get to know you and understand what you done doesn always have to lead exactly to where you going to go next And most times it doesn How to understand what you do what you want and really kind of build out what you want moving forward So we able to be able to go hey yeah maybe it is the thing you think, but let's educate you on a couple other things to see. Maybe it's something you're like, oh my gosh, where's this been all my life?

Or maybe it confirms you're in the right place. OK, so the same industry isn't necessarily bad or like maliciously bad. It's just freaking lazy. OK, if the email for the person you're working with is not the same as the franchisor, right?

You get introduced to McDonald's and you're talking to Bob from blah, blah, blah, not Bob at McDonald's. McDonald's a bad example, but like you get the point. So what does that mean and how could that be bad? Um, well, it is probably means you are working with an FSO or a franchise sales organization.

One of the very worst things in franchising right now are FSOs. Okay. First, are all FSOs bad? Of course not.

There's some really, there's some ones out there that are really trying to do things the right way. Um, so again, one negative doesn't mean all negatives, right? But there are some bad ones out there. The goal of an FSO is the letter S.

sales, right? They are trying to sell you something. Franchises should not be sold. They should be awarded.

It should be a mutual process. An FSO has no affiliation to the brand. And by the time you're an owner, probably will not be working with them because many of them and the ones that some of them take a really go down a really fast lane to get you to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell you. They're going to be gone by the time you're an owner.

and now you're stuck left with whatever crap they fed you to get you to do that. How do you know if it's a good FSO or a bad FSO? Are they pushy? Are they selling you on numbers?

The massive red flag right there. Look at where people are doing this much revenue and this much net profit. These are things that we're not supposed to be talking about, number one. number two, we just did a whole episode kind of because of this recently on how to actually formulate a pro forma.

So you're focused on the right numbers, right? Is the FSO very restrictive on validation? Are they constantly, the second you push back on anything, then trying to take it away from you or telling you someone else is about to buy your area? Those are really big flags of be careful.

That brand could still actually be the best thing for you, but there's a lot of, again, a lot of yellow flags and probably one or two of those are, like the selling on the numbers is just a red one, okay? What about similar emails or email domains? And this is very definitely like that sidekick method because they are steering, right? So they could be sending you to the same parent company.

maybe they've sent you to three neighborly brands. Neighborly is massive. It's 20 brands, right? Does that, is that necessarily a bad thing?

No, it does feel a little lazy, right? Because they didn't expand the search out of, maybe neighborly just doesn't sit well for you. Some people love it, some people don't. And that's okay.

But I'd also want to know, do they have some sort of tie to where they're sending you to multiple, right? Um, does, does, are they sending there because they pay more, right? I, that's, that's a legit question I would be asking. What is their, what's their reason for sending it for, for doing that?

Cause it really feel, maybe it's just lazy. That's not lazy. It's not great, but lazy is not malicious. Um, if there's some sort of tie or reason that benefits them versus you, then that is a real problem.

Um, now that similar email domain could be to the same FSO. Right now, if a broker is sending you to multiple brands and multiple of them are part of that same FSO kind of feels like a sidekick, doesn't it? Right. All they're worried about is like making sure that their their their their master loves them.

Right. From this standpoint, it is the little buddy steering to the larger companion. Okay. We had this happen recently was a client came in to us, was working with another broker that really felt very sidekicky because introduced to three brands, two are the same FSO.

The third brand seemed different until you really understand that brand is ran by somebody that used to be part of the FSO. Hmm. Whose loyalty is that broker to? I got news for you folks.

It ain't you in that situation. So these are things to be very, very careful of and aware of and avoid the sidekick. The sidekick is not there for you in any way, shape or form. They're there for them.

This is the most individualized and personalized process you going to go through next to getting married If you are working with somebody and they are not spending an enormous amount of time to get to know you and probably honestly get you outside your comfort zone a little bit in that get to know process, if they are sending you, you say, I like this and that's all they send you. Again, not malicious, just lazy. And we are missing all of these other possibilities out there that could be the best thing for you.

If they are sending you to FSOs, not always a bad thing. But again, go back to those things that we want to be careful with. Are you constantly feeling like you're being pushed, sold on numbers, feeling very restrictive and constantly like, you know, if you don't move forward, I got somebody coming in here tomorrow. They're going to take this territory from you.

Does that happen sometimes in franchising? Yes. But again, you're going to be able to kind of understand. It's one of those things where I think if you just trust your gut on that, you're going to know that.

If you are being sent to people that emails look very similar, again, that could just be lazy, but it really could be that sidekick thing. And again, I cannot stress this enough. The sidekick ain't your sidekick. They ain't here for you.

They're here for them and they're here for, you know, they want somebody above them to think their little buddy did a good job. Okay. keep that in mind. I am, I don't know if I'm the worst self-promoter in the world, but I'm not very good at it.

But I will kind of brag on our team at FranCoach is one, we've grown a ton. We're about three times bigger than we were this time last year. But last year, as a team at FranCoach, we had 125 clients become franchise owners. Okay, here's another thing to think about.

Of those 125, they represented 101 different franchise brands. 101. So did we have a couple brands that people ended up owning more than once? Yes, right?

24 times, right? That ended up happening where it was a repeat something, right? but 101 different ones. What does that really mean?

Are we here for the brands? No. Are we a sidekick for somebody else? Hell no.

Are we owned by private equity? Hell to the no. We are here for you. So 300 episodes in, all I want to do is get you properly educated on franchise ownership to determine if this is for you.

If so, then we want to help you find your best fit. There's not a best fit out there. You should not be sold a damn thing with this, folks, right? But there are so many amazing success stories.

I mean, this is a billion-dollar industry, folks. So many successful, happy franchise owners out there that have exited the corporate world, that have taken control over their life, time they're spending, freedom, flexibility, doing what they want to do, when they want to do it, with who they want to do it with. If that sounds like at least mildly intriguing, reach out to us at FranCoach. We're going to help you and see if we can maybe create your better tomorrow with this.

So anyway, thank you guys so much for rolling with us for 300 of these stinking things. Hopefully I live long enough to see another 300. And for all the folks that have reached out, all the comments over the years, we thank you so very much for tuning in. So we'll see you next week.

Hey, thanks again for tuning in to the Franchising 101 podcast brought to you by FranCoach. I hope these episodes continue to educate you on the amazing possibilities that can be achieved through franchise ownership. In between podcast episodes, if you still want to learn more about franchising and the ways in which Fran Cochin can help, there are a few places for you to check out. First, tune in to the Franchising 360 show.

It is the only nationally syndicated television show about franchising hosted by me and Danielle Wright. Our TV show airs every Friday, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific on Biz TV. Next, check out the FranCoach YouTube channel, which is FranCoach for you. You can find tons of franchise-specific content there.

Plus, you can catch past episodes of the Franchising 360 show. If you like to read, we encourage you to check out our book, Becoming a Franchise Owner. You'll never guess what it's about. And finally, when you're ready to take that first personalized step and explore the franchise industry further, please reach out to our amazing team at FranCoach.

You can click the QR code or find us at francoach.net. There is never any fee for our service. So let us help you create your better tomorrow.

Thank you.