From Operator to Visionary: How CEOs Build Self-Sustaining Businesses

Speaker A: Foreign

Speaker B: to go into business for yourself. Get ready for another episode of the Franchise Academy podcast. Ah, education, insight and inspiration. Here's your host, small business and franchise expert Tom Scara. Welcome to another episode of the Franchise Academy. My name is Tom Scara and I'm a franchise advisor and coach by day. And I love to podcast and talk with great people like Dave Lorenzo by night. And I am excited to have Dave on. If you don't know me, I'm the, uh, founder of the Franchise Academy. I help people find franchises all over the country and Canada and I match you based on skills, personality and goals. Kind of like the eharmony of, uh, business. Been at it for quite some time now. Owned my own franchises. I even failed in a franchise and wrote a book about that. So you might want to check out Franchise Savvy on Amazon. Today I'm speaking with a mentor to me, Dave Lorenzo. Dave is an entrepreneur. Dave is a podcast host. He is a business growth strategist who specializes in helping businesses and the owners transform their companies from Main street to high value investments. He's known as the Godfather of growth. And I got to say that slowly Godfather of growth and all my Brooklyn accent's coming out. So Dave's a master at helping leaders unlock their potential and scale their businesses strategically. Dave is also the co founder of Exit Success Lab, a consulting firm dedicated to helping CEOs grow and scale their businesses so they have more options when they're ready to exit or sell their business. On this podcast, it's called the Inside BS Show, Dave shares actionable insights on leadership, sales, productivity and exit strategies. And when he's not doing that, he's leading groups of business people in Florida. It's a group called the Giving Group. Also connected to Provisors, which is a nationwide, um, networking firm. And so Dave brings a unique blend of strategy and storytelling to every conversation. And that's why I brought Dave on here. Dave, welcome to the Franchise Academy.

Speaker A: Hey now, Tom Scara. Great to be with you and all the franchise fanatics. It is so great to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Speaker B: It's so great. Um, you are renowned in the business world. You and I both live in Florida, although you're on one coast and I'm on the other coast. And, um, people still know you on my side of Florida, uh, in the Sarasota market in Tampa. And it's just really amazing how you help people. So how did you even conceive of like the Exit Lab and all the

Speaker A: stuff that you do so Exit Success Lab came about because I was doing educational seminars for CEOs through Vistage, the coaching organization. And I would do half day talks for CEO groups. And I would start out these talks, Tom, um, by looking out at the room. And sometimes there's like six or seven people, sometimes there'd be 15 people in the room. And I would say, I want to go around the room before we start. I want you to tell me who you are, what you do, and I want to hear how this is going to end for you. Like, what's your, what's your goal for your business? And I started doing this because I was there to teach them about leadership communication. Like, that was my thing. I was supposed to do three hours on how they could communicate better with their investors, how they could communicate better with the customers and with their employees. And what I always started those sessions with, Tom, um, I would always start with the reason you're in business, right? Just like you have over your shoulder the reason why. Okay. And most of the time your reason why is going to be tied to some sort of like an end goal. Like, oh, I'm in this business because I saw the need to, uh, end, you know, hunger in my neighborhood. And I got, I got to the place where we were doing really great and I expanded beyond my neighborhood into my county. And then we were doing great in my county and I went and did the rest of the state. Like, there's always a, uh, there's always a story behind it, and usually they have an end goal in mind. And it's like, and when this gets so big that it's going to grow beyond the state, I want to either sell to this big company or be, you know, I want to be taken over by a, uh, national organization that does this, or I want to pass this on to my kids. So the reason they're doing it and what their end goal was was important to me so that I could tailor my seminar. Well, here's what happened. I asked this question. The first time I asked this question, I just thought I was in a room full of dummies because nobody knew the answer. Like, you know, how is this going to end for you? And I got seven people looking at each other and then looking at me like I'm crazy. And they're looking at the guy who's running the meeting, like, who is this guy you brought in asking us questions we can't answer. By the fourth time I did that, I came, I was driving home, it was a local event, and I'm driving Home. And I'm thinking to myself, this is a problem. And what do we do as entrepreneurs when we see a problem? We find a solution for a profit. Right? I'm like, if I can help people figure this out, I can do all right for myself and I can provide a great service for them. So I was coaching people up, consulting on business growth strategy. We still do a lot of that. But everything we do has to have a goal toward getting the business owner to where they want to be, whether that's in a year and a half, if they're in their 70s, or it's 25 years or 30 years down the road, if they're just starting out. So that's how this came to be. People didn't have an answer. Business owners with successful businesses, Tom, they didn't have an answer to the question, how is this going to end for you?

Speaker B: Yep, it's. And that's why you're on this show, because even people that buy franchises, they're like, yeah, ah, I want to make more money. I want to make an impact on the community, you know, here, now, right now. But not like, okay, in five years, what does this look like? And, and so that I believe is really important. Begin with the end in mind. You know, Stephen Covey, all that stuff. But what I share with folks, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't know if I really have, have this right, but what I tell people is there's only three outcomes that you have for a business. You build it and you kind of pass it to the kids or somebody else, and you live on a dividends and, and, you know, you retire and that's cool. Uh, and they take it over. The second option is you build it to a crescendo and then sell it for a liquidity event. And then the third option is you crash it and fail, which is really not an option, but it happens. Is there another thing?

Speaker A: Yes, you're on the right track. So here's what we do. We sit down with the business owner and we say, okay, there's short term and long term. So there's contingency planning, and then there's long term strategic planning. So the first thing we do is we sit down with them and we say, let's play a game. Let's pretend that you have to step out of the business for six months. Okay? Um, and we can use whatever you want. You go on vacation for six months or God forbid, a family member gets sick and you got to take care of them for six Months. How does the business run during that six month period? And you know, we brainstorm solutions to that. Well, those solutions end up becoming exit plan options, right? So if you've got a good number two, if you're, if your business is a good size, you may have a chief operating officer, you may have somebody who heads up your sales and marketing, you may have somebody else who is your accounting person. You may call them a bookkeeper, controller, or if you're a bigger cfo, right? And if you say to me, these three people, they can put their heads together, they can run the business for six months, I would say, okay, then you got a contingency plan in place. We need to document that so that everybody knows what they need to do. If you're out of the business for six months now, then we take that and we can transition that into one exit strategy. And that may look like we could call it a sale to the employees. Bigger companies call it an esop, an exit stock option program, right? So you need to have an employee sale option. You can also have, if you're a bigger company, a management sale option. So you could have managers that could lead the company, borrow money from a bank to buy your business, or, or you could have the employees own shares in your business and buy the business. So those are two options we look at with the business owner on a contingency basis that we can transition into a full blown exit strategy at some point. The other options for an exit could be something like a sale. Like you mentioned, there's a strategic sale, there's a sale to potentially a competitor, right? So if you're number one, you may want to sell your business to the competitor who's number two. If you're number two, you might want to sell to number one or to anybody else along the chain or somebody who's in a complementary industry who wants to enter your industry. You could sell to them. So those are strategic sales. There's a sale to private equity. So there are some industries like managed services, technology, private equities all over them like stink on a pig. Also like, uh, home, home, uh, services businesses these days, roofers, garage door businesses, um, anybody who does heating, ventilation, air conditioning, private equity loves to buy those. So there's an opportunity for you to potentially sell it to private equity. If you get really, really big, talking over 100 million, 200 million in annual revenue, and you've got a really good attorney, maybe you could go public. I mean, back when you and I were coming up in the 90s, everybody wanted to Go public with their business, right? I mean, that's a long shot option, but there's a whole spectrum of options in addition to exactly what you said. So you got a good team, but your team doesn't want to buy the business. But you can take extended periods of time off from the business. God bless. Go to Europe, you know, let the team run the. Give them an incentive, give them a profit sharing incentive. Let the business keep running. You do your thing, check in from time to time. If they don't want to buy the business, let it run without you. And you got Fredo, who's your son. You just make sure the business is bulletproof so that Fredo, even though he's weak and stupid, doesn't run the business into the ground. You develop standard operating procedures, put a good team around them. You can pass it on to Fredo. The one option you don't want, Tom, um, you don't want to die at your desk, right? So you have to have other options in place because dying at your desk is the worst possible option. Now, all of these options require that you have a business that's saleable, right? So your business has to, has to make profit. Somebody else has to be able to repeat the profitability of your business so it can't be dependent upon you, right? And there has to be, this has to be something that is desirable. So you have to, you have to produce something or have a business that somebody will want, right? So the business has to make a profit, it has to be able to run without you. And, and the, the productivity, uh, has to be desirable for somebody else. If you got those three things, you got a sale of a business, all of those options are on the table for you. The ones to start with are what happens if I have to take an unplanned vacation from my business for six months, right?

Speaker B: It's so spot on and so helpful to me even. But as you're talking, something occurred to me and, um, a lot of times, you know, a mom and pop, you know, small little local business comes to me and says, I got this great concept and I want to franchise it. The advice is almost exactly what you're saying. Like, you got to set it up so if you're not there, what happens? And so what I advise people to do is go open up a second location without you being there, let your brother in law run it, let your neighbor run it, and figure out where the blind spots are, and that's how you can figure out how you're going to franchise this thing. Because you might be in Florida, but your first franchise might be in North Carolina. How are you going to deal with that person when you could just talk to them on the phone? So, um, there's something there. Um, it's like instead of exiting, you could franchise your business or something like that.

Speaker A: So the best thing, what you're talking about, the best thing to do is to get somebody with a lot of common sense they don't have. You don't need a genius, you need somebody with a lot of common sense and somebody from outside of your industry. Right? So you got a great restaurant and it's profitable. You got a great concept. Restaurant business is notoriously hard. You want to franchise your restaurant, so you're going to open up another one on the other side of town. Find a smart person, a common sense, street smart person. They don't have to be book smart, common sense, street smart person. Write down all of your processes and procedures. Have all the standard operating procedures together. Get the best cook from your restaurant and the best server from your restaurant. Put the best cook and the best server over in the other restaurant with the smart common sense person who spent a month in your shop learning what you do. Give them the processes and procedures and you check in every day, once a day and then once a week and then a couple of times a month and see if they can do it. If that smart book, that street, smart, common sense person with your best cook and your best server can get that business going and run that business, you know, you got something you can franchise.

Speaker B: Yeah, well said. Uh, that is brilliant. And it's interesting because it reminds me of like when I had a job, you know, 30 something years ago, before there was emails and cell phones and all that kind of stuff. I would go, you know, I'm going on vacation for a week, so I have to write down to my, you know, partner, um, who's going to take over my business. So this is what you do first. You come in and like, and like really detailed, you know, you're gonna check the mailbox because no email, but you're gonna check the mailbox. Then you're gonna go do this and ah, you know, and so it's like that. It's like getting ready to go on vacation. And uh, one of my favorite lines I heard a couple years back is imagine if we acted every day the way we act the day before vacation.

Speaker A: Your most productive day of the year, the day before vacation. Right? So I'll tell, here's what, here's what I do and this Is. I mean, I grew up. I grew up in the Marriott organization. Uh, my first job out of college was, uh, I started working in the. In the dish room. And then I was a bellman, and I worked all the jobs that you can possibly work in a hotel. So I'm a big believer in standard operating procedures. So now my wife and I both travel for work occasionally. So, uh, about three months ago, we were both away at the same time, and the kids had to take care of our two dogs. And our two dogs are, you know, they're four years old, so they're not puppies. And they're very calm, relaxed dogs, but they. They have a special diet. They eat something different for breakfast than they eat for dinner. So I'm the guy who takes care of the dogs. I'm, um, the dog guy. Nobody else. I feed the dogs. I walk the dogs. I talk to the dogs. Like, the dogs. Uh, the dogs and me, we have a special bond. So I shoot a video for my kids of exactly what to do to feed the dogs. Like, this is breakfast. I take the can off the shelf, I put the kibble the can, I mix it together, and I say, enzo gets this much. Andy gets this much. And I show him with the bowl. Then I wrote everything down, and I taped it to the wall with an arrow pointing at the cans. Like, I thought to myself, what can I do? So that if I was half asleep and I just stumbled into this house and I said, oh, there were dogs here. They. They look like they need to be fed. What am I supposed to do? I want this to be so bulletproof that, uh, anybody who stumbles into my house half asleep could do it. And I. That. That's what it took for me to feel good about making sure, like, the dogs are living things, right? I wanted to make sure the dogs were still alive when I came back in five days. So, like, that's the kind of level of detail you're never gonna go wrong in your business with that level of detail. Worst case, your employees are gonna look at you like my kids looked at me when I came back, and they were just like, really? Really? We needed the video and the thing on the wall and the instructions. Like, really, like, the dogs could have. The dogs could have read this and fed themselves. That's better than having them give the dog that's allergic to three different types of foods, a type of food that he's allergic to, and have a $5,000 vet bill when they take him to the vet, right? So you can never go wrong with too much detail or too much training in your business, you know, that is an investment that is always going to pay off for you.

Speaker B: I love that. And it's just so true when you think about, you know, your career recently, what is like a great company that you enjoyed working with.

Speaker A: Oh my gosh. So I um, that's the implied in your question is a really important point. I, these days I'm um, you know, I'm 56 years old. So these days I only pick people that I, that I'm, that I think I'm going to like working with. And then I can tell in the first like 30 days if I'm going to like working with the client. I only really work with people that I like working with. But I'll tell you a story about somebody who got uh, a success that, that really just kind of warmed my heart on a personal level. So my partner, Nicola Gellermino is uh, is a lawyer by trade and she's a fantastic detail oriented person. I am um, I am more of a big picture person. So when people come into our organization, Nicola captures all the detail about their business and, and then we get together and we do an onboarding with them. So we connected with uh, uh, an attorney who is an intellectual property attorney and she's brilliant and she had two people on her team but she was stuck doing the day to day work. So when we helped her with her business plan, we said to her, here's what we need to do. We need to leverage your brilliance so that you're applying the, all of your intellectual horsepower on the highest value opportunities. And the stuff that is basic blocking and tackling like searching the trademark office to see if a trademark is available and then writing up the application for the trademark, those type of things, they can be done by other people. You need to be there for your clients, for the strategy for protecting their overall intellectual property portfolio. So I said to her, share with me your last five clients and let's see what the last five clients needed to be done, let's see who did what and let's make a plan for how we could do it better. And we came up with three different types of clients that she had and we came up with processes and procedures for handling each of those clients so that 80% of the work or more could be done by the two people on her team. Well Tom, do you know that she took the next step and she said, I like having people do 80% of the work. So I'm only gonna go out now and find Clients where they can do 80% of the work and I can bring in more work that way. So that was like a happy byproduct. So she increased her sales in the first three months by like 45%. She threw her back out. And when she threw her back out, she had to be out of the business for surgery for, for six weeks. Because of those processes and procedures she had in place, and because she had built up a pipeline, her business grew by another 15% while she was out. She came back and she was like, she had been obviously monitoring and checking in with them. She came back, she was astonished. And uh, our first meeting with her, she was in tears because she said, they don't need me, they don't need me anymore. And I said, that's the best thing that ever happened to you. You can now go out and get even more business. So the fact that we were able to take somebody who's an attorney, who believed that they were the product, and help them transition into a business where the output is exactly what the client wants and it doesn't have to involve the person who's the practitioner on a day to day basis, that for me is, it's rewarding. Not only because we're, uh, she's still a client, we're getting a great result with her. It's rewarding because it's changed the quality of her life. She, she doesn't have to work 70 hours a week anymore and she's already making 55%, 60% more than she was making the year prior. And she's working differently, probably the same amount of hours, but doing different things. Higher leverage, uh, opportunities. So that's an example of a, uh, of a success that we recently had that, that we're really proud of.

Speaker B: That is awesome. And I feel like, you know, what you're saying is in some cases, not all, but some cases, you have to take a step back to take two steps forward. And it is involving delegation, which a lot of people have a problem with. It's like, I gotta do it. I can only do it, you know, by the time I explain it, you know, I could have just done it already. And so you gotta get people over that head trash to get everybody.

Speaker A: Everybody loves the word leverage, Tom, but they hate the word delegation. So what I, what I do is I sit down with them and you know, the minute they say, you know, I tried to delegate this, but Sally, she's just, she just doesn't get it and it's quicker to do it myself. So I shift the Conversation. And I say, I got it. I understand. So we're not going to delegate anymore. What we need to find, though, is we need to find maximum leverage in this business. Because if everything like the thing you're trying to give to Sally involves you, you don't have a business that is truly an investment that can be sold at some point down the road. And, you know, it's amazing to me, Tom, that the language we use shifts our mindset. Instead of talking about, like, delegating tasks, we talk about employing leverage. Instead of talking about, uh, you know, helping our business become more efficient, we talk about treating our business like an investment that appreciates in value. So imagine if you had a mutual fund, right? And you had to get up every morning and you're drinking your coffee and you got to figure out what stocks to pick in the mutual fund. What good would the mutual fund be? It wouldn't be a good investment for you, right? The same thing is true with your business. If you got to get up every day and make the donuts, that business is not a really good business for you. Now, if you get up every day and walk in and go to the donut shop and have a cup of coffee and admire the donuts being made, that's a beautiful thing. That's an investment. That's what you're looking for in a business. If you don't have that, Tom, um, you got a job, you don't have a business. If you have to do something to get the money in the door into your bank account, if you have to be involved in that process, you don't have a business, you got a job. That's the best reason to buy a franchise. Somebody already figured this crap out for you and they're giving you the plan, right? That's the best reason to buy a franchise. You, you're buying an investment. The best thing for you to do if you can afford to do it. When you get that franchise, plug a manager in there, let the manager run the business. You help out from time to time if you want something to do. But that's the best reason to buy a franchise. Somebody has already figured that out.

Speaker B: And that so well said. And it reminds me of myself. So even so, people that are listening to this now, if you have a business and you feel like you're doing all 12 hats, you're wearing all of them and you're not making, ah, you need to call Dave Lorenzo. He will help you figure out your plan. And sometimes it's simple things like personal story is when I had my first franchise, which was a smoothie franchise. You know, the blenders are making the smoothies and stuff splash all over the place. So we had, like, these washcloths that were on the. On the stand. And so, um, we could just take them back and wash them. You know, I would take them home and wash them. And one day the president of franchise called me. I was like, about six months in, and he said, I was in Long island and my franchise is in Manhattan. And he said, he's still going into Manhattan. And I said, yeah, of course. He goes, well, why? You know, And I said, well, who's going to wash the washcloths? And that became a thing in the franchise, right? It's like, who's going to wash the washcloths? Oh, my God. You're like. When I think about that now, I'm like, how silly. But that's what happens. And we're, you know, I'll put somebody in business and I'll call them and I'll say, how's it going? You know, and they're like, oh, man, it's not going the way I thought. I'm not making the money. Like, why? Like, they gave you a plan, right? There's minimum daily behaviors.

Speaker A: That's.

Speaker B: That's my thing. What do you. What do you have to do? And they're like, oh, they said, I have to call five people every day, but I can't do that because I'm putting out a fire. I got this, I got that. And I'm like, whoa, wait a second. So that's why somebody who's listening to this and they're struggling like I did. And these other folks, they need to have a conversation with you and, and plug into, you know, your podcasts and your teachings and. And all of that.

Speaker A: So I'll tell you, the biggest shift for me, Tom, was I, uh. So you gotta. You gotta think of, how do you. How do you see yourself, right? So if you see yourself as the CEO of the company who owns five franchises or 50 franchises, you gotta think to yourself, okay, well, when would that guy wash? When would he wash the washcloths? Well, he would wash the washcloths if he came in and he saw the washcloths were dirty. But he's not gonna think to himself, I gotta come into the store to make sure that those washcloths are clean. What he would do is he would call up from his office and say, hey, Tom, you got somebody in there to wash the washcloths? Just checking in. That's what he would do. He would call all five stores and make sure there was somebody on top of that task to wash the washcloths. But he's not, um, doing it himself. My point is, the minute you're buying that franchise, you got to think to yourself, your identity has to be the identity of the CEO of a five store company or the CEO of a 50 store company. That will transform your behavior. So today the washcloths are dirty. You got to wash them. But you better believe if you're the CEO of a five store company and you know you got four other stores to check on before you go home for dinner, you're going to find somebody to make sure those washcloths are clean tomorrow. So, so that you don't have to come back here and do that. That's the way the CEO of the five store company, the CEO of the 50 store company would call his regional guy and say, make sure those washcloths are clean, please. I don't want to go in there and see dirty washcloths again. So you gotta transform. Your identity is gonna govern what your daily behaviors are. And those behaviors will become habits. That's the difference between rich people and poor people. Rich people and rich people have rich people habits. Poor people have poor people habits. Great example of that is how we get paid, right? Rich people get paid in advance. Poor people get paid after the work is done. All right, in my company, everybody who does business with us pays us first. And you know what happens if they don't want to pay us first? They're not our clients. Because I don't have an accounts receivable department. I don't want to be chasing some. If I have to spend my money chasing your money, I'm in the wrong business. Rich people get paid in advance. Poor people get paid when the work is done. That's just an example of types of habits that successful people have. And, uh, the habits come from your identity. So when you buy that franchise, you're immediately the smoothie mogul who's going to buy 50. And whether you fulfill that dream of buying 50 or you just have five, you're doing things to treat your business like an investment. So think about who, who you are or who you want to be and start acting like that person now. Make decisions based on how that person would make those decisions.

Speaker B: Love that. And I think it is a mind shift. A lot of people run their franchise from the perspective of, um, uh, an employee. So they don't have that mentality. And, but you could, because I had that mentality Right. I was a government worker, and I had to change a lot to be a business owner. And. And it, uh, and it worked. Thank God I had good coaches out in my franchise to help me with that. But the thing is, some people buy themselves a job and they don't realize it. And the thing that you'll find, as you look at franchising in general and a lot of the concepts, there's no barrier to entry, but there's a barrier to scalability. And that's the difference is, you know, anybody can start a business, but can you scale it and have five stores without having that franchise structure? Maybe you can. Most likely, you can't. Um, and that's the e. Myth by Michael Gerber, if you ever read that book. But it's.

Speaker A: Yeah. The only way you can do it without the. The best. The best thing. If that's. If that's your dream, a, uh, franchise is ideal for you because somebody already figured out. Somebody's already thought of 99% of what could go wrong and they fit operationally. They. They figured that out for you. If you do the things that the system says you should do, if you pick the location that the franchise has vetted for you and you follow their marketing plan and, you know, it's like baking a cake. Okay. They give you the recipe, right? If you go out and you substitute flour for another white, powdery substance, right. I'm in Miami, so I'm talking about sugar, of course. So if you substitute sugar for flour or flour for sugar, the cake is gonna taste different, and it's not gonna. You're not gonna be happy with the. Or, uh, salt, right? Flour, sugar, salt all look the same. If you substitute salt for flour or sugar, cake is gonna taste completely different. They gave you the recipe. Follow the recipe. Give the system the time to work. If you do what they tell you, it's gonna work. It's already been proven. Now, if you are a sole proprietor and you're looking at growing your operations yourself, that's great. You got to have somebody like my partner Nicola, who's very detail oriented, who can capture all of that stuff, put all of that stuff together, and then teach everybody all that stuff. If you want a shortcut, a franchise already did that. You just got to find a business that resonates with you, that you think you're going to be able to be the CEO of multiple stores if that's your thing, and go with that. It's already done for you.

Speaker B: Love it. I love it. So, Dave, when you think about your business. Um, is there a myth that you could break right here, right now, about what you do and what your clients see and all of that?

Speaker A: Yes, and I'm so glad that you have that question as part of your show. So the biggest myth that we see. So we named our business Exit Success Lab for a reason. And that's because we want people to, exactly as you said, begin with the end in mind. The myth is that people should only come to us. People should only look at us when they're like a year and a half or two years away from their exit. And nothing could be further from the truth. We want people involved with us as early as possible, because the way you build your business today is going to impact the value of that business for the long term. Again, your business is an investment. So think of yourself like Warren Buffett. He's gonna buy an investment and he's gonna buy. He's notorious for buying something he really likes. He uses and he believes and he goes and buys the company. And then what does he do? He doesn't flip it tomorrow. He holds it for the long term and he watches it grow. He adds to it. That's the way you should approach your business. But you need to have the end in mind, and you need to think to yourself, okay, if I'm going to exit this business, I want two options. When I exit, I either want to be able to sell it to my management team, or I want to do a strategic sale to a competitor. Or, you know, I can prepare for a strategic sale and I'll be perfectly aligned if private equity makes me an offer no matter what. I need a really good management team. But if I want to have a management team that I can sell to, it makes sense for me maybe to pay a little bit more for my managers now and. And give them an incentive to grow with me so that they're going to be with me for the longer term. So your exit plan affects everything you do from the day you start working with us. Preferably the. Preferably day one, or as soon as possible all the way through to the end. So if you're going to be in this business for 20 years, why not hire a number two right now? Pay that person a little bit more, give them a profit sharing incentive so that they stay with you for 20 years, and then maybe you can sell your business to them. Or if you decide you're going to sell your business in a strategic sale, you cut them in, give them a, you know, a small piece of the action for staying with you for all of that time. So your exit strategy, you have to have something in mind. You have to prepare for two or three different things from day one. So the myth is only get involved in planning strategically for your exit when you're ready to go. No plan now. And we can always adjust that plan if there's a plan in place to begin with.

Speaker B: I love that. That's extremely helpful. If you own a franchise or you're starting a franchise now, you're buying one. Now think with the end in mind right now and call Dave. Dave, what's a good place to contact, uh, you?

Speaker A: Well, there's a couple things we can do. So go to getinsidebs, uh, dot com. You can subscribe to the inside BS show there, and that's a place where you'll opt in to get the inside BS update via your email. When you get the first email reply back that you saw me here, say, tom Scarda says, hey, now, um, in the email, and I'll send you a free copy of my book, the 62nd sale. I'll send you the electronic version of the book, the 60 second sale, everybody. That goes to getinsidebs.com when you get the email reply back, Tom Scarda says, hey, now. I will send you a free copy of the 60, uh, second sale. That's the last book I wrote. That's the best way for you to check me out. We do a new show every day, 6am we do interviews two or three times a week. Um, it's our way of giving back to the folks who have been so good to us. So that's the best place to reach out to us.

Speaker B: That is, um, a lot of content every day. Wow.

Speaker A: It's fun. Look, you and me, we're former New Yorkers, so we like to talk to ourselves a lot. So I spend a lot of time talking into the mic, and somebody, some. Somebody someday will listen. If not, I got the dogs. The dogs will always listen.

Speaker B: The dogs will always love you, no matter what. Well, thank you, Dave. It was great having you on the franchise Academy. It's been a blessing. I look forward to talking to you more and, uh, seeing you at provisors and, uh, see you soon.

Speaker A: All right. Thank you, Tom. It was a pleasure being with you.

Speaker B: This has been another episode of the franchise academy podcast. For more info, go to our website, thefranchiseacademypodcast.com Remember to subscribe to Tom Scarta's YouTube channel for educational videos on franchising, education, insight, and inspiration.