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Veterans in Franchising october 2018
www.franchisingusamagazine.com
U.S. Army Veteran Finds
Perfect Fit for His Military Legacy
Q & A with Paul Bosley:
How Much Equity Will I Need to Invest in My New Franchise Business? Franchising USA
SAME DRIVE. DIFFERENT BATTLEFIELD. TAKE THE NEXT STEP > VETFRAN.COM OFFERING FINANCIAL SUPPORT, TRAINING & MENTORSHIP Veterans interested in franchising can take their skills learned in the military to successfully own and develop small businesses. Learn more and support veterans in franchising at www.vetfran.com.
• 650 franchise companies participating • 151,000 veterans and their spouses found careers in the franchise industry • 5,100 veteran franchise owners
Veterans in Franchising Supplement october 2018 Our Veterans in Franchising special supplement has become a regular feature of Franchising USA. To share your story in the next issue, please contact Vikki Bradbury, Publisher Phone: 778 426 2446 Email: vikki@cgbpublishing.com
Contents On the Cover 46 U.S. Army Veteran Finds Perfect Fit for His Military Legacy 48 Q & A with Paul Bosley: How Much Equity Will I Need to Invest in My New Franchise Business?
Veterans Expert Advice 44 Training Aids: Often Overlooked, Effective Way to Get Much More From Your Training Cordell Riley, Military Veteran, Partner and President
of Tortal Training
Veterans Q & A Veteran Profile 42 Fish Window Cleaning
48 How Much Equity Will I Need to Invest in My New Franchise Business? Paul Bosley, Managing Member, Business Finance Depot
46 Our Town America
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V e t er ans in Fr anchising
Veteran Profile: Fish Window Cleaning
U.S. Army Veteran Ron Brumbalow
Utilizes Army-Built Skill Set to Tackle Small Business Ownership
concept. On top of that, it did not involve a brick and mortar investment, it dealt with business to business relations while still allowing me to interact with independent consumers and is a service industry. It ticked all the boxes for me.”
Ron Brumbalow is a retired army helicopter pilot turned entrepreneur. After serving as a commander of an attack helicopter unit and spending more than ten years in Europe and Asia, Ron is now tackling a different kind of challenge – franchise ownership. Second to the Army, business has always been Ron’s passion, so he decided to invest in Fish Window Cleaning. After a successful career in the U.S. Army, Ron now utilizes his army-built skill set to tackle small-business ownership. Ron became a Fish Window Cleaning franchisee in 2013, and he hasn’t looked back. Fish Window Cleaning is the world’s largest window cleaning service, with locations across 44 states. Ron is confident that his decision to invest in FISH was a good one. “Franchising was the perfect next step for my career. It was a way for me to stay active in my community but not have to shoulder the weight of small-business ownership alone,” says Ron. “Fish Window Cleaning was the ideal franchise for me. Everyone is familiar with window cleaning, so it wasn’t a completely foreign
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Military training serves as an ideal preparation for franchise ownership. Veterans understand the importance of building relationships, properly preparing for a day’s work and maintaining a hardworking and devoted staff. Veterans are typically ambitious, driven individuals who are prime candidates for self-employment. Franchising is a viable alternative to independent business ownership for many such military men and women. Franchising provides an opportunity for a veteran’s success to be self-driven, while still allowing them access to a qualified support system. Fish Window Cleaning strongly encourages franchise owners to tackle challenges head-on, while still providing the necessary support, tools and resources they need to succeed. Ron himself is a passionate advocate for veterans investing in franchising, specifically in Fish Window Cleaning. “In the military, you learn to work hard, do the job right and take care of your people. In order to succeed, you need to have a good work ethic and take pride in your work. Those skills transfer remarkably well to franchise ownership. We aren’t in the business of window cleaning; we’re in the business of taking care of our customers,” continues Ron. “I regularly talk to my friends who are retiring from the military and urge them to consider Fish Window Cleaning as a second-act career. It’s truly been an amazing opportunity for me, and I can’t recommend it enough.” Ron is thriving as a Fish Window Cleaning franchisee. He has the flexibility he craves while maintaining a purposeful life that keeps him active in his small-town community. When he isn’t working with Fish Window Cleaning, he enjoys traveling with his wife, going on road trips in his RV and spending time on the water; kayaking, boating, jet skiing – he loves it all! www.fwcfranchise.com
The public and policymakers need to understand franchising. Our purpose
@OurFranchise is an industry-wide campaign created to spread the word about the value of franchising and share the stories of men and women just like you, who are leading the way as franchisors, franchisees, and franchise employees. The franchise business model has been proven time and time again to work, but it’s threatened when the public and politicians don’t understand how it operates to benefit local, independent franchise establishment owners and their communities. Putting a spotlight on real leaders succeeding with the franchise model is how we’ll ensure franchising is stronger than ever before.
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By joining @OurFranchise, you’ll get access to exclusive stories and resources that can help grow your franchise business, educate employees at all levels about the franchise business model, and share the economic importance of franchising with consumers. You will also have the opportunity to share your franchise success story with your peers. Visit AtOurFranchise.org Contact Erica Farage, Senior Director of Political Affairs and Grassroots Advocacy and Multi-Unit Franchisee Engagement International Franchise Association efarage@franchise.org (202) 662-0760
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Make sure you stay up to date with the campaign’s latest efforts through email updates and social media. Visit our website to read and share the latest stories of franchisors and franchisees making an impact in their communities. Become a franchise advocate to help ensure Americans, now and in the future, have the opportunity to start franchise businesses. Take the lead today!
V e t er ans in Fr anchising
expert advice: Cordell Riley, Military Veteran and Partner & President of Tortal Training
Training Aids:
Often Overlooked, Effective Way to Get Much More From Your Training You are investing a lot of time and money in training. But do your trainees actually use what you taught them?
professionals and other experts have tried
That is a troubling question that training
50% of what they learned the day before.
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to answer over the years. As long ago
as 1885, a German Psychologist named
Hermann Ebbinghaus studied how long
people remember information they have learned. He plotted his findings on a
“forgetting curve” that showed that after only one day, people forget as much as
A week later, they have forgotten 90%. If that retention rate is accurate, it means that much of the money we invest on training is not well spent. Today, training professionals wrestle with this question too. Most of us know too well that if trainees decide that a training concept is not useful, they stop using it or don’t even try it once. And then there
that deliver messages to cashiers like, “Remember to ask customers if they would like French fries.” A similar one could be a sign, posted on phones, that says, “Remember to smile before you answer the phone.” Another could be a recipe for a customer’s favorite drink that is posted where your beverage servers can see it; when that customer arrives, those servers know exactly what he or she likes most and how to prepare it. Those training aids are not expensive to create and deliver, but they can have an outsize impact on performance and the bottom line.
Some Effective Ways to Use Training Aids . . .
Cordell Riley
is the fact that a lot of training programs present more information than learners can possibly retain. They need help to use what they learned.
Enter Training Aids Training aids offer one of the most costeffective, simple-to-use ways to get people to both remember and use what you taught them. Do you know what training aids are? They are simple reminders, often signs or laminated cards, that remind people to use specific skills, concepts or techniques that they learned. Perhaps the most common training aids are signs in restaurant washrooms that say, “All Employees Must Wash their Hands Before Returning to Work.” Other common examples are signs that are posted behind fast food cash registers
Point of sale procedures and shortcuts - A small sign that explains them, posted on your registers or wherever sales documentation is completed, can reinforce steps that you taught during training and improve both employee performance and customer satisfaction. Ongoing reminders of “must to know” safety and other concepts - One example. Even though you have already trained your restaurant personnel to use correct protocols to clean food-preparation areas, it is wise to post instructions that remind your employees of the correct procedures to follow. Recipes and instructions for preparing beverages and foods - Posted instructions can go a long way toward improving the quality and consistency of your products and the speed of delivery. Daily close-out procedures - What steps should your personnel follow at the close of business every day? A well-placed training aid makes required procedures easier for your employees to follow and reduces errors.
“Training aids offer one of the most cost-effective, simple-to-use ways to get people to both remember and use what you taught them.” Motivational messages - You probably got your trainees fired up and energized during training. But do they stay that way during the weeks and months after training has ended? Posting some motivational messages - or texting them to employees’ smartphones - can keep them enthusiastic and engaged.
So, How Effective Are Training Aids? After reading this article, I hope you will think about them in new ways and agree that they are powerful, like David in the famous Bible story of David and Goliath. They are little, but they pack the power to slay giants. Cordell Riley is military veteran and Partner and President of Tortal Training, a leading training development company in Charlotte, North Carolina. After his time in college and the military, Cordell launched his career at Driven Brands, the owner of Meineke and Maaco. During his 20 years there, he rose through the ranks with increasing levels of responsibility for Operations and Training. He then founded Tortal Training, in 2000. A recognized training expert with extensive experience in the franchising sectors, Cordell has spent more than 20 years helping thousands of companies achieve outstanding success through training. He is a sought-after keynote speaker who addresses conferences and company seminars nationwide. Follow @ TortalTraining. www.tortal.net
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V e t er ans in Fr anchising
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V e t er ans in Fr anchising
Veteran Profile: Our Town America
U.S. Army Veteran Larry Neal
Finds Perfect Fit for His Military Legacy
as Our Town America Franchisee Our Town America franchises and have become regional developers, as well. Neal has found a particular fit for his military experience with the management philosophy and approach to business taken by Our Town America, which now counts three veteran-owned franchise units among 65 overall franchise locations. “In the U.S. Army, I learned about the value and effectiveness of sacrificing your individual desires in the service of large and important collective goals,” Neal explains. “I also saw how important it is for a group to have a proven road map to achieve its goals.
As a three-year veteran of the U.S. Army who served during the Vietnam War, Larry Neal demonstrated discipline and commitment. As a corporate manager for 25 years, he learned and honed sales skills. As a selfemployed home builder during the Great Recession, Neal experienced the value of persistence. All of those chapters of his life culminated in the decision by Neal and his wife, Paulette Neal, to purchase their first Our Town America franchise in Detroit in 2006. And by applying lessons from each of them, Neal has succeeded handsomely: The couple now own and operate three
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So when it comes to Our Town America, Neal says, “The business model itself is a perfect fit for veterans because each owner can follow a blueprint of proven processes and procedures toward personal success.” In the early 1960s, Neal decided to leave his home town of Ironton, Ohio, to enlist in the Army. “High-school graduation meant either working at the local steel mill or a life in the military,” he recalls. “I chose the Army.” Neal’s Army service came just as the Vietnam War was escalating. “My experience in the Army was eye-opening,” he says. “It showed me there was more to the world than just a little town in southern Ohio. I enjoyed the experience of the Army.” After discharge, Neal went to work for a multinational chemical corporation and excelled in sales roles for two and a half
decades. He had begun building homes as a part-time job, and after “retirement,” Neal slid into building homes on a fulltime basis. But the brutal recession beginning in 2008 shook his world because the national housing bubble burst. So, Larry and Paulette decided to investigate the possibilities for owning a franchise. Our Town America proved to be a perfect match, and not only because Neal could apply leadership lessons he’d learned in the military. “It hit my sales niche; it didn’t require a physical building or any employees,” he says. “I was able to run my business the way I see fit. Our Town America is a phenomenal organization.” And Our Town America does more than its part to help veterans like Neal find that fit. For U.S. military veterans, the company offers a $10,000 discount on the franchise fee. “It’s already an affordable, home-based franchise opportunity,” Neal says. “It truly is a win-win, because you can make a huge difference in your community while successfully realizing your own entrepreneurial dreams.” “All veteran business owners want to be able to make a powerful impact in their community, but that desire is meaningless unless the business model fits their skill set and bank account,” says Neal. www.ourtownamerica.com/franchise-us
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Q& A: Paul Bosley, Managing Member, Business Finance Depot
with
Paul Bosley
How Much Equity Will I Need to Invest in My New Franchise Business? A new franchisee can be funded by any combination of 3 methods: Self-Funding, Equity Financing and/or Debt Financing. In all cases, a new business owner will have to invest some of their own money in the new franchise venture because 100% financing is not available. The first step in creating your financing plan for your new business is to quantify how much money you will need from inception when you pay your franchise fee until when the business is open and cash flowing so that it is profitable and able
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to pay the owners a salary. The typical breakdown of funds needed includes the franchise fee, the organizational costs to establish the corporation, the landlord deposit, location buildout expense, construction overrun contingency funds, equipment costs and working capital until the business is profitable. Once you have quantified the total $ amount of the money needed, the maximum a typical new business owner will be required to have in liquid assets to invest is thirty percent (30%), Liquid assets include money in your checking and savings accounts, marketable securities, retirement savings in an IRA or a 401K from a previous employer and any money already invested to launch the business which is typically the franchise fee. Please be aware that money borrowed
“A common method of self-funding is to use your retirement funds invested an IRA or a 401K from a previous employer.� from a home equity loan and a 401K from a current employer is NOT considered equity because the loan needs to be repaid with one exception. If the new business owners are a married couple and one person in the family is planning to keep their job so they can repay the loan from this income, the loan may be considered equity in the project. Self-financing 100% of a business is also a possibility by investing your savings and/ or liquidating or borrowing against your marketable securities. A common method of self-funding is to use your retirement funds invested an IRA or a 401K from a previous employer. This is referred to as a R.O.B.S. (Rollover our Business Start-ups). There will be a future article explaining the ROBS program which was launched by the Internal Revenue Service as an alternative for self-funding a new business. Another common method for self-financing is to secure a home equity line of credit which involves borrowing against the equity in real estate owned by the partners. For more information, please email Paul Bosley at: paul@businessfinancedepot.com. or visit us online at: www.businessfinancedepot.com.
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