Revolutionizing Franchises Through Certification Programs

Speaker A: Franwise presents what's your Effing Business?

Speaker B: A podcast about franchising. Here's your host, Marianne o'. Connell.

Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of what's yous Effing Business? A podcast about franchising. I'm your host, Marianne o', Connell, and I've been in this business, well, we won't say how many years because then you'll figure out how old I am. But I have been a franchisee. I have been a franchisor executive, and for the last 24 years, I have been a consultant and had the great pleasure to meet so many different great professionals and really incredible brands. And today we're going to mix it up a little. We're normally only talking with our franchise executives, but every now and then a new program comes out that helps suppliers or is done by a supplier and helps franchisors. So our guests today are. Are two of my faves in franchising because they are the ultimate in professionalism. The first one is the CEO and founder of Service Score and the Franchise Customer Service Certification Program, Mr. Jason Pearl. And his guest and ours today is the Chief Development Officer for Propel Brands. And I'll let him tell you what's under that umbrella. And that's Mr. Mark Jamison. Welcome, gentlemen.

Speaker C: Thank you, Marianne.

Speaker A: Oh, I'm glad you're here. So, um, let me do this. Let me start with you, Jason. Why don't you tell me the genesis of this program and what it's designed to do.

Speaker C: Marianne, thanks so much. And I'll just reciprocate the great things that you said. I'm a fan of you and Franwise and all that you've given back to franchising over the years. And, um, I really appreciate all you've done and of course, the opportunity for Mark and I to connect today, um, on this cool topic. So, yeah, the Franchise Customer Experience certification is something we started a couple years ago. And really the idea came from starting to work with Franchise Update and the IFA on the Franchise Customer Experience Conference, um, which, um, this would be the third year of that. So this was, um, in the spring of 2022. And really what, what we were looking at and what got me intrigued was some of the statistics that I think we all know. Well, that every year there's an average of 300 new brands that start franchising. I think last year was over 400 according to Fran data. Um, but, um, 84% of franchise brands never get beyond 100 units. And so when we're thinking about, you know, the customer experience Conference and just more generally education and support for franchise brands. We really started to think about, well, what is it that um, drives growth? And our hypothesis was it was all around franchise profitability. But there really isn't much research or best practices to help franchisors, especially new franchisors, be able to chart a course, um, for their franchisees. You know, certainly there's, there's great experience and a lot of brands, you know, have that experience, but especially for new ones, there's not really a roadmap. And so we really sat down and started working with four brands back, um, about two years ago to see what they were doing in this area. And so at the time we were working with Wild Birds Unlimited, Chicken Salad Chick, Christian Brothers Automotive and Puroclean, you know, different businesses from different industries, um, that have a lot of accolades, um, uh, customer experience, consumer experience, but also franchise satisfaction. So we sat down and took a look at all the different ways that um, they employ their practices, uh, to be able to drive franchise profitability with a focus on their customers being consumers and franchisees. And that led us, um, two years later to be able to introduce that to a number of new brands, um, three of which were with propelled brands, um, at IFA this year. And so that's one of the reasons why we're so grateful to Mark and interested, uh, in talking a little bit more about it today.

Speaker A: Thanks for that. Um, I'm intrigued by something you said which is their customers, the consumers and the franchisees. Is it something that the franchisor, the certification is how the franchisor delivers that to both the franchisee and the consumer or, or how they deliver it to the franchisee who in turn delivers it to the consumer.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great question, you know, and it's, it's uh, it's kind of a mixture of both of those in a way. Specifically, what we measure in this certification are 32 different franchise or practices. So you know, to your, to your point, some of those are practices that um, are how the, how the brand markets, um, to consumers and puts in place. Look, this is the way we do business. So some of that's obviously how the franchisee delivers that brand promise and the training directly, but also how the brand is portrayed, how the franchisor is involved in measuring consumer satisfaction, for example. So it's kind of a blend of both, but then how they also um, support their franchisees, um, and be able to link all that to profitability. So the hypothesis really is that happy and satisfied promoter franchisees create happy and satisfied promoter consumers. And that virtuous cycle that a franchisor creates is really what drives franchisee profitability. And so we built this model in five different areas that incorporate those 32 different practices.

Speaker A: All righty. So other than the fact that Mark is handsome and charming and Propelled Brands is great, how did you choose him?

Speaker C: Well, that's a great question, so we

Speaker B: can just stop there. Handsome, charming.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's it.

Speaker B: I'm good with that, Jason.

Speaker C: Well, I think those are the two biggest reasons. Of course, Marianne, um, is, you know, certainly his Hollywood good looks was, uh, the major thing we took a look at. But honestly, when, um, in reaching out to Mark, it's interesting. I think there was two reasons. So certainly what propelled brands, the leadership team, you know, Kathryn, Mark, you know, all of them represent in this industry. You know, I think, you know, I was, you know, thinking about this podcast today, and I reviewed what Kathryn shared at IFA this past year in her.

Speaker A: And can we say we're talking about Kathryn Monson.

Speaker C: I'm sorry, Katherine Monson. Yes. Thank you. The CEO of Propelled Brands. Um, she talked about, and I think summarized it well, that the opportunity for all of us is to focus on franchising best practices that always have franchisee profitability at the heart. So that culture, um, that Mark has helped lead, of course, along with Kathryn, is a big piece of it. But specifically, when I think of, uh, Mark, at the risk of giving him a compliment, um, you know, he's somebody that I've known for many years through, you know, different advisory boards.

Speaker B: You don't expect one in return.

Speaker C: Working on the Pride Council, a lot of things. But what. What I've always admired about Mark specifically is his, you know, his work ethic, but also just always being present for his franchisees, you know, those relationships of, you know, might be a tough conversation, but he's going to get on the phone or get on a plane and, and have that conversation and always try to find the win, win and go that extra mile knowing that it's there. And so I think that's why the, you know, the results in that business for so many years continue, uh, to, you know, to set the pace in the industry, um, because of his leadership specifically. So, you know, we were excited that once we had something fully built, you know, we could bring it to Mark because he was too busy to help us pilot this. But, um, we said, boy, we've got this great opportunity. And then he was kind enough to say, okay, you know, What I get this, this aligns with our goals as an organization and so let's do all three of our brands that they had at the time.

Speaker A: So that was going to be my question to you Mark. I mean you're already spinning a whole lot of plates in your role as propel brand keeps bringing on new and diverse brands. Um, so what was the intriguing notion that made you say yes to bringing on something else?

Speaker B: Yeah, maybe I'll take it back a step and talk about our brands and who propelled is. You know I've been with the company for uh, it'll be 15 years in November which blows me away. It's the longest I've been anywhere I've been in franchising like you Marianne. I don't want to give away anything. So I'm going to say more than 30 years. 20. Um, but that just means I'm old. But um, you know we own four brands today. It started as Fast Signs when I joined the company. Uh, Fast signs today has 760 locations in nine countries. In September of UH 2020 we acquired our first brand. It was Catherine's vision to become a multi platform company. I had worked for one previously. She had. And we bought Nerds to Go, a small emerging IT brand with about 25 locations. And then in July of 21 we acquired my salon suite which today has 350 location and another 300 sold and unopened. And uh, in February this year we were very excited to add Camp Bow Wow to our portfolio which has about 225 locations and about another 30 in development. So a very diverse portfolio, 1400 locations, as you said, four very different industries. Um, and I think when Jason shared with me what he was doing, we weigh very heavily. Franchise satisfaction, unit level, economics, the ability to grow and drive our brands through marketing, um, and driving Top Line. Although Kathryn has always said and we're big believers that we don't want to drive Top Line without making sure that profitability flows through to the franchisee. And what Jason shared with me and this program, I was kind of blown away by how comprehensive it was. You know we're in. We love Franchise Business Review, we love doing our own surveys. We love all those things. And this sort of, we have a very detailed item, 19 for all of our brands. But this pulled everything together. How are we supporting our franchisees? How are we making sure they're driving the right information? Um, and I saw this as I want that certification. Um, and uh, today three of our brands have it and the fourth brand is in the works.

Speaker A: How much work is it for the leaders of those individual brands to go through this process?

Speaker B: Well, Jason will get mad at me because I will say it's a lot of work.

Speaker C: It's robust.

Speaker B: Marianne, he'll use the word robust. I remember what a lovely word, calling him, saying, I don't have time for a full time resource. But I think what. So it's, it's not a lot of work if you know where the parts and pieces come from. You know, it is detailed and comprehensive. I, I was lucky enough to have a great project manager on the team. But I think we also learn when we go through that process. Boy, they're asking this question and how do we do that? Right? We know we do it, but how do we quantify that we do it and it's real. So I would say it's a robust effort to use Jason's word. But I also think the learning part was good for us. Uh, I had a project manager doing it and she'd come to me and say, I know what the end result is, but I don't know how we get there. And so it was kind of good to kind of go through that process and say, how do we measure that? How do we know it's being done each time? How do our franchisees execute in the field? And so, um, I think it was well worth all the effort we put into it. And I'm told by Jason that it'll be much easier next year.

Speaker A: You're touching on a bunch of different questions for me. So for you, Mark, approximately how long did the brands take to complete the certification? And Jason, what are you finding is the average timeline?

Speaker B: It would be hard for me to break it out because I assigned it to a project person with other responsibilities, I would guess. And Jason, you can yell at me if I'm wrong. I would think it's a, it's a solid day and a half, two days work, um, over time. But you, you know, but we're also, we're owned by private equity. We're very buttoned up. We know where to get this stuff because our owners are asking for it, our PE owners, our franchisees. Uh, Catherine, as you know, is very detail oriented. So I think for us we knew where to go and get it. It may take longer for other, um, but there's a lot of details to it. And then much of the effort, to be frank, is on Jason. Um, they had to reach out to franchisee and do some of the follow ups.

Speaker A: Okay, so you're dealing Jason directly With the franchisees.

Speaker C: Yeah, so we try to look at this from a couple different lenses and you know, as you inferred, most importantly to make it easy for the franchisor but still make it credible. So that's the line that we tried to, tried to walk. So um, yeah, there's, there's. The franchisor, through our secure online portal, will provide, you know, documentation on these 32 different practices that we're measuring. Um, but in addition to that we'll interview franchisees just to, just to make sure that there's credibility, that we're kind of looking at it again from all different angles when we're talking about these things being in place. And then with brands we either do direct consumer interviews or we'll do kind of extensive research around, um, what's being said online, customer reviews, um, chat rooms, all sorts of NPS scores.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker C: All sorts of things that are external, um, you know, kind of qualitative information. And then we'll take all of that and put that together in a report for the franchisor to be able to say, you know, really, hey, here's the comments that we've, we've read. Here's where there's, you know, great things being said to celebrate and then some opportunities perhaps. Um, and then on all of these 32 different things be able to say, hey, here's um, you know, where these things are in place, but here's how you could take that to the next level. So you know, for the brands who work with, it's, you know, it's recognizing all the things that are working but providing resources, uh, to do better. And so, you know, the last piece is we have a resource area that we put together just for brands that are pursuing or have been certified for each of these 32 different practices. We've got, you know, hundreds of different, you, uh, know, in total, hundreds of different, uh, uh, practices, research, white papers, et cetera, to be able to take it to the next level. So um, it's really providing those resources as well as the recognition to get better.

Speaker B: And I would just add to that to say that what was great about it for us I think is I've got everything from a 35 year old mature brand to an emerging startup brand. And so when you can look at those and say, wow, we do this here, but how do we do it over here? So I think the process was good learning. I love the tools and the resources for the team. Um, and I think every brand that goes through this is going to have their journey and for us, our brands are so different and the age of those brands and where they are in their life cycle is different. Uh, that there was very good learnings for our brand presidents to be able to look at this and use the resource sites and say, boy, here's some things that maybe I need to think about on a going forward plan.

Speaker A: You're reading my mind, Mark, because my, my question that as Jason was talking,

Speaker B: I'll keep the other thoughts out of it, but

Speaker A: it's like you have all these mature brands and then nerds to go. Was the new one and the smaller one, was it a really different experience for them to, to have to do this?

Speaker C: It.

Speaker B: I think it was. It is different. Um, it's some ways it's easier because there's less locations, but in the other case because the brand's not as mature, there maybe are some things there that need to go. Even my salon suite, to be frank, is only a 10 year old brand that's not that mature in franchising to get to that level of locations. And so I think it, one of the things as a platform company we're always working on is how do we integrate these brands into our systems and tools. And what I love about this resource is it now allows us to look at it and go, well, did we think about this and how it works across all four brands? Um, and not just assume that we plug it into propelled and everything works. Um, so I think from that perspective, um, it was a really good learning tool. And I think we'll continue to use the resources that Jason has built out to educate, uh, our operations teams, our brand presidents. Um, I'm in charge of development. I thought of it as a development tool. When I got through it, I'm like, this is really as much of an operational tool and a certification for everything we do as a company at Propelled Brands. Yeah, I got the little sticker that I'm going to put in my ads. But at the end of the day I think our brands and our franchisees can be proud that we achieved this as well.

Speaker A: Yeah, I would see this as a great tool also for training. Um, I would be looking at that. Do you recertify annually or how often do the certifications get.

Speaker C: Every year.

Speaker A: Yeah, See, I would look at that annually and say, wow, if I'm consistently seeing topic A is not performing well, there's something we're doing wrong in the training with our franchisees. What are we missing?

Speaker C: I think you're exactly right. And you know, it's funny, Marianne, because I Just got off the phone with, um, Todd Houghton, who's a president of homewatch Caregivers, who is another brand that we certify. And you took the words right out of his mouth. That was what he said, was that that was one of the biggest benefits they had, was to be able to identify opportunities for training so that we can say, okay, it's resources for the team and ways for the executive team to be able to look at where to make investments. But it's also to say, you know what, we want to be great at this. Um, we've got some resources now. Let's enhance our training program so that we can shore up those areas where we need some opportunity to go from really great to exceptional.

Speaker A: So a couple of weeks ago, I was clearing out my office. Basically I had lost a piece of paper and had to take everything off the shelves trying to find it. But, um, I found a piece that I have hung up here. This was a presentation I wrote for the CEO and founder of Money Mailer to make to another franchise, um, company. And one of the things that hit me and when we're talking about this is it was the eight great myths of franchising. And it was that I can't get it down here that the operating. The myth is the operating system is for the franchisees, when the truth is that the operating system is for the customer. And I think that a program like yours, that's why I was asking you have it for both the franchisee and the consumer, is really embracing what the truth is. And I think we get so hung up, you know, in our practice at Franwise, when we're writing so many manuals, it's all about telling the franchisee what to do, not how to think. And, um, it is all about them. And we're having to make sure we take it out to that end. Consumer.

Speaker B: And what's that? What I love about some of the questions and measurements and Jason's to take that step further is they talk in terms of customer experience. Right. And that's what we're all looking for. What is that? I've got four very diverse brands. That customer experience might start online. It might start by walking into a, ah, location. Um, and I think looking at it from the customer experience, which is really key, ah, to what Jason's doing really is, um, is a whole other way of thinking, but the right way to be.

Speaker A: No, I agree with that, especially with your complexity. Is this something you started in the introduction, Jason, talking about, um, the statistics, which we've all simply Accepted and nobody's ever tried to do anything about. So I was like, oh, that's carved in stone. That's franchising. But you were saying that this is particular for these new brands that come in, that the franchisors don't have the roadmap, they don't have the resources. And is there a difference? I mean, obviously you're working with mature and robust brands. Oh, I'm sorry, you're robust, Jason. Not you. But, um, with robust brands, like all the brands under Propel.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: And so is it a different experience if I'm new and I don't have a lot of resources that I came to the table with? I'm just learning to be a franchisor.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great question, Marianne. I guess I'll answer that two quick ways. So one is, you're right. Most of the brands, really, all the brands that we've certified, uh, so far, and the next round that'll be announced in June, um, are pretty large brands. Um, so part of that's intentional to be able to learn and kind of build out this model from these folks that are doing it well. And knowing that, probably the biggest surprise is that the brands say, hey, we thought we were the, the best in the industry around, that maybe we are, but we can always get better. We can always learn best practices from our peers. So kind of creating that community as part of it. But, you know, we've kind of learned that there has to be, uh, the ability for a brand, regardless of size, to at least be able to take action on these things. So when we talk about measuring and improving consumer experience, franchise experience, you know, helping franchisees grow their profitability, it's not necessarily the number of locations or even how many years they've been operating, but it's. You have to have a certain minimum infrastructure to be able to have these things in place or have it be meaningful. Right. You're not gonna. With five locations, the, you know, the franchise satisfaction is. You can make, you know, you could do a zoom call and probably get a good read. Right. But, um, so I think we're gonna evolve as we, as we learn more from great brands, like, you know, like all the marks to be able to say, how do we bring some of this back? And the certification might look a little bit different because you're not going to be able to do what, you know, a fast science could do or even a nerds to go, um, when you're, when you're just starting off. But, you know, our mission really is to, is to provide that trusted resource with the community of, you know, partners that we have and these great brands to be able to say, hey, if you're just. If you're one of those 300 brands that are starting off, here's how you can kind of put some smart things in place from the beginning so that you're not learning the lessons that so many of all of us in franchising learn at 50 locations or 500, and then have to try to go back and retrofit putting in a chart of accounts, because we didn't do that from the beginning. And we're trying to now get our books to all look, um, consistent, uh, when we've got 200 locations, I've, I've lived through that. And it's better if you start that from the beginning. Just as one example.

Speaker A: Absolutely. And when you talk about best practices and small brands, they really aren't best practices yet. To me, they're just happy accidents. We really haven't enough time and volume to see if it works. So I can completely visualize the information flow that's coming from your resources through the franchisor to the franchisee to the consumer, and getting the certification for both of you, the question is, what does the reverse of that look like? You might get great feedback on 10 of, um, your criteria. And then as it comes down, are we asking the customer, are we just looking by performance on what they do need to improve? So it goes back this way, not just in the beginning, when you're saying, this is what we've heard and there are some issues, but are you getting a constant loop on the feedback?

Speaker B: I mean. Go ahead, Jason.

Speaker C: Well, yeah, so, I mean, one of the things I think that answers that good question, Marianne, is we're measuring if the practice is in place and that the franchisor is taking action. Right. So, uh, you know, we're not. You know, there's great companies that are measuring net promoter score or like, you know, franchise business review, measuring, uh, the satisfaction and what that looks like. So what we're measuring is, are those things in place and how are you taking action to drive improvement? So we're looking for that loop, I think, as you say. Um, but we're a little agnostic about what the score is because we know that whether it's good, bad or ugly for any brand, the best practice is to know where you're at and be able to put resources behind improving those areas that drive profitability. So, um, we know that that's the winning

Speaker A: recipe.

Speaker C: Um, and so you know, brands might be at different levels than that, but just those practices that um, drive that long term growth.

Speaker A: Mark, you were going to say something.

Speaker B: I mean, I think it's all about having the right foundation, right? As we went through this, and I'll tell you as being somebody on the executive team, we're looking at brands all the time, we're looking at others to acquire. And I'm always shocked when I peek behind the curtain of uh, what isn't being done right. And so I think this is a amazing foundation. And there were areas where Lisa, who was working on it for me, would come back and say, well, we loaded this up and we need more information here and this has to be done. And of course I'd call Jason and give him hell. But at the end of the day, good questions were asked. I don't know that there's an ongoing feedback loop, but it's all about having the right practices in place and the foundation to make sure that the end result is right for the customer, hopefully the franchisee, um, and in our case even investors. So I think there's some great learnings from it. Um, and I think anybody who goes through this process can come out the other side a way better company and maybe learn things that they shouldn't be doing or not that they should be doing they never even imagined. Right. We all do things as practice, but we don't always go back. And I remember even Marianne, when we worked with you, you've done some of our manuals, you would come back and go, your FDD says this, how are you making sure it's being done in the field? And we'd be like, that's a really good question. And so I think all of these things are learnings on how we can, we have this vision, are we executing it so it's easy for the franchisee and it improves the customer's experience.

Speaker A: So in all that you did, and I know you had somebody project managing it, but on a personal level, Mark, what was your biggest aha ah in all of this?

Speaker B: That's a good question. Uh, I think, I think for each brand it was a little different. Um, and I think I'd have to really go back and look at it. I know that all of us who do what we love and are passionate about it can get a little cocky about, hey, we're doing everything the right way. And then when you go back and look at it, and I remember Lisa came back and said, hey, they've kicked this back out. I'm like, what do you mean they kicked that back out? I'm gonna call Jason.

Speaker A: No.

Speaker B: And then we'd go back and go, well, that's right. We need to look at these other three things. So I. It's hard for me to give a specific answer on where, but there were definitely learnings for us, I would say the disconnect with all these other things we do, having a great manual, having an item 19, even FBR is what's the metric to make sure we're doing it for the customer. And so the customer interviews, the survey reviews. Those things, to me, was a big part of the learnings is that's all a big part of, uh, all these things we're doing and do they ultimately result in a happy customer.

Speaker A: That's good. So it's really just maybe that puzzle piece that's been missing for brands all along. You can take the. What you're what. You know, I'm going to say this more as a founder than just an executive, but, you know, what, what you have and why it's great and why you want to franchise it. And then maybe as you go on, you actually get brave enough to stick your toes in the feedback loop and you do a survey with fbr, but you don't always know what do you do with that information? And it sounds like Jason, with the certification program, then they can organize it, focus on it, not just embrace the things they got good grades on because they may not be driving revenue, um, but really go and sit down and find out how to maximize that feedback.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's so well said. And even to Mark's point about where do you start? The thing that was most surprising for me, when we were getting feedback and starting to build this, I jumped right to the metrics and net promoter score and fbr. And the advice that we were given was, you got to start with culture. I think you said it so well, Marianne. Just there, you know, you're a new franchisor. Why do you want to start this business? Right. Um, so everything starts with culture and your core purpose and core values. And how are you going to do business? Why are you doing business? Starting with the. Why all those. All of those things? So it's operationalizing your culture is where we start. And then with that foundation, it's, well, how do. Then what do we want that experience to be that's consistent with our values. Right. Consistent with what gets us up in the morning? Um, and then that's how we're going to award franchisees. Right. Because it's going to be consistent with our core values, and we're going to measure and take action. That's consistent with our purpose and our core values, and all of that should be able to lead to profitability, because that's the business that we're in. But it's got to be consistent with the personality, the culture of the brand, um, and bring that all the way through. And that was something that was, you know, you asked a question to Mark about what was consistent or interesting about the three different brands, uh, that we were fortunate enough to work with. And that was the thing that struck me to answer that question was just the power of that foundation that Propel Brands has, is whether, you know, these three brands are different sizes, different levels of franchising, number of years, but they have that solid foundation of, look, we know who we are, we know what our mission is, we know what our values are, and that everything is going to flow from there. Um, because the heart of that is, you know, why we get up in the morning, but it's to make life better for our franchisees through this. Through this business model.

Speaker B: And I think this is the first time, and I've been doing this for a lot of years, like all of us here, and we look at these things individually. This is the first holistic look at what we're doing across internal, external, all of that, um, in one place. Um, and I love that for this program, and I love that for our franchisees.

Speaker A: I could just want to go hear a great amen on all of that, because I find in my practice, um, when I ask people what is their culture and we get to values, and I know I'm in trouble the minute somebody says, well, can you suggest some for me?

Speaker C: Oh.

Speaker A: Oh, no. Seriously, can't.

Speaker B: Oh, boy.

Speaker A: Don't know. You don't know what this is about. And if you haven't thought about it, the manual needs to go in the back burner for a while. And let's focus on who you are. I was also, as I was listening to you, Jason, um, you mentioned way in the beginning that one of your initial brands that helped build the, um, criteria was Puroclean. And Bud Summer, who works there. He has an evaluation tool that they use for their franchisees through the sales process. And, um, they really use that also, like, oh, now I understand who Marc Jamison really is. I know how to talk to him. I know how to get the training across to him. I know when I'm in the field. And now if you put together that and the FBRs and, um, what you're doing with the certification, this is a major game changer, has the potential to be in franchising. Congratulations for bringing that on. Um, I had a question for a second, but ran out the door. Where do you see that while I'm thinking about that, Jason, where do you see this certification program going?

Speaker C: Well, I think our mission is to be able to do something about those metrics. You said it so well, right. That we look at those metrics, we hear it every year and they don't change a lot. So that's aspirational. But, um, that's going to be an accomplishment of this community that we're building and innovative leaders seeing it early, like Mike Mark and who we're talking about today, um, to be able to really impact some of the emerging brands and be able to bring something more for them, um, to get that even early. Because that's the thing that we're trying to figure out, quite frankly is, you know, there's sort of a catch 22 of look, you want to catch some of those bad or not bad, but, uh, you want to help somebody chart the right path early. Um, but it's. If you catch them before they've charted a path, it's hard to measure their practices. Right. So, you know, all that said, does that mean that there's maybe some training or, you know, there's a way that we kind of, you know, bring this, um, as education, working with Franchise Update and the ifa, you know, there are some opportunities that way that we're taking a look, look at. But, um, it's, you know, and for large brands like Propelled, it's being able to, you know, leverage the learnings that we, that we're, you know, all generating together to be able to help that, you know, help these great brands get even better, um, and sort of build that community and give back because they've helped us build it in the first place.

Speaker A: And then as new brands are coming in, will you. I assume this would be a slow evolution, not a dramatic year by year change, but maybe watch how your criteria change because what we used to do to support franchisees even five years ago, pre Covid, is completely different since our world turned upside down. So will you be constantly monitoring what your clients are finding out and then making adjustments on to what actually is a best practice?

Speaker C: Yeah, so it's going to be adding, uh, and enhancing the practices, um, changing the weights of them, quite frankly, because even though we're measuring different things, they have different weights as they correlate to Franchisee profitability, um, um, and then just being able to share those resources back with, with these participating brands and franchising in general. Those are our probably three goals for the next year.

Speaker A: Can you share with us some of the brands that have gone through the process?

Speaker C: Yeah, so we, so it's um, you know, the three propelled brands, Fast Signs, nerds to go on my salon suite. Um, our pilot group was again Pure Clean, Wild Birds Unlimited, um, Chicken Salad Chick and Christian Brothers Automotive. And then we've been fortunate enough to work with batteries plus home watch caregivers, massage heights, uh, QC Kinetics, um, I think that's everybody. And then as Mark mentioned, uh, we're working with Camp Bawa right now and we'll have a couple other ah, brands that we'll announce uh, in June.

Speaker A: Mark, um, so when you get all this great learning and so much of this, I do believe that the most underrated role franchising is the fbc, the franchise business consultant. Because I mean I even have a diagram where I go through, you know, here's your culture and then you have the FDD and the franchise agreement. You narrow it down to the manual, the training and then not the bottom of the upside down triangle but the one holding it all up is that fbc. So how are you taking what you're learning from um, your certification process and interaction with the franchisees and training your FBCs to do a better job?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think we're gonna uh, we actually have a company wide, uh, our first with all four brands now, um, uh, event coming up for all of our employees to continue to build a culture and to talk about our brands and all the things. And we're gonna use much of the learnings here back to our team to talk about what the learnings are, how they can execute it and what that looks like in the future. So I think it's a lot of data and it's good data but putting it in a buck and doing nothing with it doesn't do us any good. So we'll continue to find ways to educate, I think our entire team, um, on it. But I agree with you. I manage the business consultant team for a while at Fast Signs. And that is the sphere of everything, right? Everything hits that person and they've got to know where to go. But just the same the team supporting them needs to know what resources that they're making available so they have good data. So we're going to use this across the organization. Um, and uh, I want to look at it as a lot More than just a plaque on a wall.

Speaker A: Oh, you already said it's also an indisha on your ads.

Speaker C: There you go.

Speaker A: What did I not ask, um, of you, Jason, that people need to know? Hmm?

Speaker C: M. No, I think. I think this. This was great. I think, um, you know, you know, if brands want, uh, to reach out, we do have a website that has some of these best practices and more information and, you know, feature some of the brands that we work with, um, so they can learn more about these, the brands that I mentioned and more about the certification. It's, um, franchisecxcertification.com, um, and, uh, we'll

Speaker A: put that in the show notes.

Speaker C: Okay, that's wonderful. But I think that's, you know, that's our goal really, Marian, is just to be a great resource and be able to support franchising, um, an industry, you know, all three of us have benefited from. Um, and, uh, want to do everything that we can to support the leaders and lead ourselves in ways that we can.

Speaker A: Okay, so I'm going to ask you kind of an awkward question. Would there be brands that might say, hey, I need this, that you would say, no, you're not ready.

Speaker C: That's a great question. So where we start is with kind of, uh, an initial review of those 32 different things. So we have had brands that we've said, you know what? Um, let's wait a little bit, right? Let's help you kind of get there and give you some resources, um, so that when you get to that point that you have some of these practices in place, you're ready, and then we can sit down and do some more work together. But I think that's the main thing, is that it's got to be real and robust, and that's why we look at it from a couple different angles. But that's a great question.

Speaker A: Uh, that's why I love you. Because it's not just, let's just take the money, do what's right for franchising. Yeah. And so, Mark, when do you get Camp Bow Wow on this? Are you waiting for the dogs to vote on this one?

Speaker B: We are literally in that throws of that right now. Um, we're excited about that brand. And I would safely say, I guess I lose some negotiation power, Jason, that we'll put any future brand in the same program. Um, we. We see value in it, and I would hope we'd be done with that in 30 days. Um, you know, we're. It's a new brand for us. We got some learnings to Do. And it's also a great way for us to come up to speed, um, on, um, you know, where are those areas that we can learn from Camp Bow Wow? Because every time you buy a brand, you learn something from them, um, that we can integrate across the platform and, or hopefully items. We're bringing a value to them. So we're doing it now. I would hope within 30 days, we'll be done and all of our brands will be certified. And, um, hopefully that'll be the company with the most brand certified. Maybe.

Speaker C: I don't know. Yeah, quite. Yes. Definitely will have to take a wall out of the. The office down in Carrollton. Yeah. To roll it in now.

Speaker B: We're excited about it. I'm thrilled Jason brought us the opportunity, and I feel like it is a evens the playing field, uh, for those that are, uh, wanting to know what is good in franchising. And, you know, Catherine dedicated to that is good in franchising. Right.

Speaker A: Hey, I'm going to make a shameless sales pitch for you, Jason, because as Mark was talking, I think for all of the equity funds out there that are amassing, uh, brands, if you went with your existing stuff through this certification process now, you're also going to know which brands are a good fit. I mean, they might all eventually be a good fit, but now you're going to understand what your manpower is going to be in your timeline to bring them up to the level of profitability you're hoping for. So I think that the fund managers should start to take a look and get the certification process.

Speaker C: That's a great point.

Speaker A: You make me think. I love calls like this.

Speaker C: No, thank you.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it really. It won't replace, but it'll make due diligence much easier. I look at a lot of brands as we're growing and expanding, and I'm shocked at the things that seem basic and franchising that many don't do. Um, and I. I think you're dead on. This could. This could expedite due diligence in some ways. For those that are looking at it, if you're an emerging brand and you want to be sold to private equity, now's the time to get these things aligned.

Speaker A: Good point. So, one. Oh, sorry, Jason. I cut you off.

Speaker C: No, I just said, uh, both. You keep going. You're on the right track

Speaker B: and have a good manual. Yes.

Speaker A: No, we don't. We don't pitch that on this show. But, yeah, it doesn't hurt. Um, one more time, Jason, if brands are interested, how do they reach you?

Speaker C: Yeah. Um, if you go to franchisecxcertification.com, there's information. You can set up time with me. Um, you know, we'll get. We'll do a initial evaluation with our team that there's no obligation just to make sure that we've got everything in place. You know, we tell brands that if they. If they're. If they want to be certified, we'll help them get there. So we, you know, there's no gotcha. That if there's somebody wants to get, you know, wants to work on a certain practice, we'll help them along the way. Um, so there's not a lot of risk, but, um, but it is, you know, we want it to be credible. We want it to be that if brands achieve it, um, they've earned a distinction of, uh, greatness and differentiation among other brands. And so that's the balance we try to work. Um, and again, we're grateful to Mark for helping, uh, set that standard.

Speaker A: All righty. Um, gentlemen, thank you so much for this and for everyone out there. Um, we say this on every episode, and we do mean it. Do you have a brand whose story needs to be told so that others can learn from you, or do you know of a brand that should be featured? Just reach out to us@inforanwise.net until then, you got great resources out there. Go do great franchising. Gentlemen, thank you for your time.

Speaker C: Thank you, Marianne.

Speaker B: What's yous F ing Business? Is created by O' Connell Company, Inc. And Franwise. It is written and directed by Marianne o', Connell, technical mastering by Ryan Cleary.

Speaker A: Our theme music was written and performed by Sean J. O' Connell and, um,

Speaker B: Leviathan Brothers, and is available on Spotify.

Speaker A: All rights to this podcast and music are reserved.