Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today we have Julian Reid, who is with The Entrepreneur’s Source. Welcome, Julian.

Julian Reid: Hello. Great to be with you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about the entrepreneur source. How you serving folks?

Julian Reid: We we are a career ownership coaches. And as a franchise organization of about 250 coaches, we work with professionals and executives who are in a career transition and want to explore something outside of corporate life as specifically, we help them look at business ownership and even more particularly, a franchise business ownership. And they may look at it either as a career change or an investment as a side gig to their existing corporate career, or potentially both. And in doing that, we first do a lot of education, a little bit of building awareness and then take them through a series of assessments to help them determine not only whether they’re great candidates and really have the great aptitudes for business ownership, but whether or not there are some great fitting franchises to match some of the key criteria they would look at in terms of becoming business owners. So our service is complimentary, much like an executive recruiter. You know, an executive recruiter is typically compensated by a third party, and I’m compensated the same way. So when I work with people to explore business options and business opportunities, my services are complimentary.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Julian Reid: Lee I’ve been with the Entrepreneur source as a career ownership coach for 13 years now. Uh, I was originally educated, uh, years ago as a chemical engineer from Georgia Tech here in Atlanta, uh, and worked a number of, uh, years, about 16 years in the pulp and paper industry, nuclear power and a few other technical fields. But as I, uh, gained leadership experience, management experience, I’ve learned a great deal about, uh, business, um, and an MBA and determined that, uh, you know, I might want to go more toward the business route and as, uh, as I kind of went that direction, it eventually got me to the point of where I am today, which again, is, uh, a career ownership coach with the entrepreneur source.

Lee Kantor: So you’re you went right from chemical engineering to being a franchisee?

Julian Reid: Uh, essentially, yes. I was a site manager for a fortune 300 chemical company. They merged with a fortune 200 chemical company. And when that happened, as as many of my clients and, uh, some of the things that happened to happen to them if they’re merged out of a career position or professional job. Um, I was without employment, and so I started looking at franchising. And one of the things that, uh, that happened there is I said, you know what, uh, this is I wanted to be my own boss and kind of run my own show, and this was a great way to do that. So that’s a little bit about how I got here. But it’s it’s not uncommon for many people to go and leave corporate life for a variety of reasons. And at that point in time, explore business ownership.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you kind of made the decision that you were going to explore business ownership, um, and you decided, I’m going to, uh, become a franchisee, how did you narrow down which franchise to choose? Um, because there are so many in so many different industries.

Julian Reid: Well, that’s a great point, Lee. Uh, there literally in North America, probably 4000 franchises. And my first foray into franchising was an exploration back in the late 90s, and you may remember a business franchise called mailboxes, etc..

Lee Kantor: Absolutely.

Julian Reid: Okay, mailboxes, etc. there’s a long story there, but it eventually became what we now know as the UPS stores. And so that was my first introduction to franchising what it was all about. And one of the things that attracted the idea to me back then, even though I didn’t move forward at that time, was the fact that, you know, I wanted to run my own business, but I did not want to invent it. I really didn’t have the next iPhone idea, or the great entrepreneurial dream, or didn’t need a patent lawyer to invent the next iPhone. Um, I just knew that I wanted to be a business owner. I had learned some good business skills by that time. Leadership, management, operations. I had some, um, uh, a little bit of background and some financing and funding. So I said, you know what? I want to take those skills, but it really doesn’t really matter what vertical I go into, and particularly since I was working in in heavy smokestack industries, I’m certainly wasn’t going to find a franchise business there or any kind of a small business there. But what attracted me to franchising is the fact that you’re looking at proven and time tested business models. And when you start to evaluate some of the different things there, and I always share with clients, there’s seven key differentiators between, you know, a small an independent small business and a franchise small business. And I just saw the franchising route as a much better route for me to go as a first time business owner, because it was such a great way to mitigate risk. And if you’re going to go into business ownership.

Lee Kantor: So what are those seven differences?

Julian Reid: Well, there’s I’ll start with, uh, just very quickly talking about six of those and then I’ll make I’ll spend a little bit more time talking about the seventh, because perhaps it’s even more important. But when you’re looking at wanting to become a business owner of franchise business ownership versus small business. One of the key things that you see right off the bat is the proven business model. So these business models are not only proven and time tested, they’re typically fairly simple. And that proven business model is not just a cliche because for example, when you go to the bank and you want to get a business loan to start a new business, well guess what? They want you to provide a business plan, a marketing plan, and all kinds of, uh, of of documentation on exactly what you plan to do. And assuming that you even could get approved for a business loan. In that sense, there’s a lot of, of, uh, tedious work that has to be done to make that happen. In contrast to that, if you want to go to the bank and you say that you want to open a particular franchise business, if that franchise business, for example, happens to be on the SBA registry, well, that makes getting an SBA loan or for that matter, any other kind of business loan, a much easier your prospect because bankers and lenders have a track record with many franchise businesses. So that simplifies the equation of getting a loan. And that’s why the proven business model is a great.

Julian Reid: Number one reason in terms of contracting franchising with independent businesses very quickly. Also, there’s there’s built in franchise or training that you’re going to be getting when you start a franchise on number three documentation in terms of operations manual, training manuals and other things that go along with that. Um, an established brand is another one because you’re going to start off with a name, a logo, and you won’t have to reinvent any of those wheels. Um, you’ll also be getting a lot of continued and support from not only initial training from your franchisor that you’re partnering with, but ongoing training, including, uh, sort of monthly webinars and things like this to impair, uh, meetings, peer performance groups and so forth to kind of help you keep sharpening the saw. As a business owner. Also, there’s collaboration built in collaboration within a franchise network. Most franchises have annual meetings and conferences where you’re going to be getting together and talking about new products and services. A problem solving, great ideas and all of these kinds of things. And not to mention the fact that they’re great social relationships and you build great friendships with your fellow business owners in that franchise network. So those are six quick ones. The seventh one is the fact that franchise business ownership is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. And your first thought might be, well, big deal. What does that mean and why should I care? And the fact of the matter is that it is a big deal, because before you invest a dime in a franchise business, that franchisor must disclose to you a great deal of information, and they must do that in the form of a legal document that legal documents called the the PFD, Ph.D., which is an acronym for Franchise Disclosure Document.

Julian Reid: And in that document, they have to give you a great deal of detailed information regarding your initial investment level, ongoing expenses, the things that you’re paying for that perhaps you might pay to the franchise, or that you might instead be paying, uh, outsourcing to vendors or suppliers. Instead, you’ll pay some of those kinds of expenses into the franchise or to do those things for you, typically at at a cost effective rates for because of purchasing power and economies of scale. Uh, the other thing that you’ll be able to see, typically with the franchise and that franchise disclosure document is a financial performance history of that franchise network, and then also the contact information of all the other franchisees in that system. So because you’re going to be getting that information on the front end, it goes a long way in mitigating not only your perceived risk, but your real risk in terms of moving forward into any franchise business. And so before you move forward, you’re going to have a great deal of information to work with. So again, those are sort of six actually seven different key differentiators between an independent small business and a franchise business operation.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re talking to people that are considering this, do some people have maybe a misconception that a franchise is kind of like an ATM machine, that I pay for it, and then I’m going to get money guaranteed out of it because it’s it still is business ownership. You still have to generate business. The franchise might give you systems, it could give you training, but ultimately it’s on you if a client comes through your door. Right?

Julian Reid: That’s absolutely true. Leigh. This, uh, what’s the name of the franchise? The franchise business model is just that. It’s a model. And I tell people all the time, you know, the old adage about, uh, residential real estate, what are the three most important factors in and residential real estate location, location, location and location. And I’ll tell people all the time the three most important factors in franchise business ownership the owner, the owner and the owner. It’s because, again, a proven and time tested business model isn’t going to do anything for you if you’re not running the business the way it’s designed to be run. So yes, you’re going to be getting a recipe book, if you will, owner training manuals, operations manuals, and a great many tools to run that business effectively and successfully. But you do need to follow that that model and move forward with it. Some franchise business models are designed for a more semi absentee posture, you know, for the owner. But you’ve got to be careful with that, because even if you’re going to have that kind of a of a model, you’re still going to have to hire a sharp GM to run that business for you. If you, for example, want to keep your corporate or your professional job. So, uh, so that is certainly something to keep in, keep in mind. But you are you are precisely correct. You absolutely must, uh, run the business model as it is designed. And that is, frankly, about the only only requirement for success, because we are talking about proven and time tested business models.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you’re talking to the people that are interested in this, is it. Um, are they typically people like you? They were just laid off, and now they need they need to get a second job. Or is it some people that are retired that maybe just want to stay connected to the business community or the community and they want to, you know, uh, do something like that? Um, or are they kids of people like, um, what is that ideal, um, prospect look like for you?

Julian Reid: Uh, Lee, all of the above. Uh, I this is a great question, by the way. And I hear that question quite often because people kind of want to know if they fit the mold for being a business owner. Well, I help them with that again with some assessments, but if you wanted to kind of understand the profile of the types of people I work with, I always use the acronym Fred f r e d the, you know, the the name Fred and F is for frustrated. I have a lot of people that I work with, clients that are frustrated with their job, their boss, their company, their industry, their hours, their paycheck, their travel. You know, they’re just they’re just frustrated. And they’re just they just don’t see a way out of some sort of a, a spiral that they’re in with any one of those categories, and they’re ready to move on to do something else. Um, the R in Fred is for people for people that have retired recently. And I’ve I’ll give you an example of somebody like that. I, I’ve, I’ve worked with UPS executives in the past, uh, here in the Atlanta area that have retired, uh, taking early retirement packages and so forth. And one of them told me one time he said, Julian, I cannot play golf eight hours a day.

Julian Reid: I need to do something else now. Keep me in. Keep in mind I don’t want to be traveling or working 60 or 70 hours a week anymore. But what can you give me to do that would be involved in business? And maybe something that I can can hire a GM or get my son or daughter to run, and I can mentor them or or work with a young GM or, and sort of interact with vendors or suppliers or customers, you know, once in a while or part time, you know, what can we do there? So by all means, they want to diversify their retirement investments, uh, which are somewhat passive with an active investment. And business ownership is an active investment where you can turn some knobs and dials. So yes, I work with some recent retirees who, who, uh, are great candidates for business ownership. Um, next is E the f and the f r e. And and Fred is for entrepreneurial and that’s whether people have ever, actually ever acted on their entrepreneurial spirit or not. I work with people that just really are, uh, you know, cut out of the cloth and have great aptitude for business ownership with all the leadership, management skills and a few other things that make them ideal to to kind of run their own show.

Julian Reid: And they’re just really wired that way. So I work with those kind of people, whether they’ve been down that road or not, people that are just entrepreneurial naturally. And the D in Fred is for downsized. Anybody who’s been laid off or furloughed or downsized or merged out or, you know, chased out of a of a job for any reason. Obviously, I work with those people who, who, uh, maybe have aren’t on a they might even be on a parallel path talking to some recruiters and doing some interviews. I’m happy to work with those people on a parallel track to investigate the whole idea of business ownership, and whether or not that would be a better route for them to go. And I kind of coached them through the pros and cons of both potential paths, depending on what their real goals in life are, which are typically going to be lifestyle goals, and then having the means and the financial wherewithal to support those lifestyle goals. So that’s that’s the approach there. So Fred is a typical good candidate frustrated, recently retired, entrepreneurial or downsized.

Lee Kantor: So if Fred comes up to you and says, hey, um, I’m recently retired and I’d like to learn more about this business ownership, you mentioned kind of this free career coaching, career ownership coaching that you do. Can you explain how that works?

Julian Reid: Yes. Um, generally what happens is I when I get a, when I am approached by or connect with someone who wants to explore either a career change or the whole idea of business ownership. And in particular, we’re going to talk about franchise business ownership. I begin with, uh, instead of being like an executive recruiter who’s going to try to take your, uh, you know, a sort of a, a square peg job order and take a round, a round hole where, where you’re you’re the job really isn’t going to fit you. I kind of work in the opposite direction. I start with the individual, I start with the professional or executive. And we look at three things. Number one, we’re going to look at your lifestyle requirements and preferences. If you’re going to do your own gig, then by golly, you should do it on your own terms. So we start with that. You know, for an example of a lifestyle requirement or preferences, you know, where do you live? And if you if you’re living where you want to live, then great. But if you’ve ever thought about relocating and all of a sudden you’ve lost your job and you want to move closer to your parents, or closer to your kids, or closer to your grandkids, well, now’s a great time to do that. That’s a that is a lifestyle preference or a lifestyle goal.

Julian Reid: I’m happy to work with people on those things, and you should certainly do that if you’re going to own and run your own business. Number two, it’s your financial goals. We’ll talk about that. For some people, it might be just replacing an income for somebody who’s retiring or recently retired. It might just be something to augment or complement their existing retirement investments. Again, many of those if they’re stocks, bonds, mutual funds, uh, you know, perhaps those are more passive investments, whereas business ownership can be an active investment where you can actually have some input to move the needle. Uh, somewhat. So. And of course, with business ownership, it’s not just about income. It’s also about building equity. So, you know, those are those are possibilities there. So some people, you know, if they’ve just been let go, they’re looking to replace an income. If a retiree, they might just be looking to supplement or augment their retirement. Then I have other people who are highly ambitious and they want to build an empire. And of course, in franchising you can actually do that because scalability is a real possibility with franchising through additional territory for a service based model, for example, or if it’s a storefronts or brick and mortars, you’ll oftentimes see, you know, multiple locations out there and many people owning multiple locations.

Julian Reid: I mean, I know a guy who owns, you know, 19 of these forts, cliffs franchises, and he didn’t start with 19. He just started with one. But again, scalability is a big, uh, a big deal with, with, uh, franchise business ownership. And so those are the first two, uh, again, lifestyle requirements and preferences. Number two, financial goals. And number three, it’s your transferable skills. Now fortunately, again in franchising we’re talking about not only proven and time tested business models, but fairly simple business models. So if you’ve been in a career where you’ve had leadership roles, management roles and perhaps operations or accounting or sales or marketing, you know, all of those are transferable to almost any vertical industry. And those are the kinds of skills, as a business owner, you want to be transferring because when you own a business, you need to be thinking, um, certainly medium to long term. You need to be thinking strategically. And it may be tactically where you’re going to be wanting to work more on the business and not so much in the business. So. So my process starts with with helping people do that again. It’s complimentary again, much like an executive recruiter. But that’s that’s where we start with those three things lifestyle requirements and preferences. Number two financial goals. And number three your transferable skills.

Lee Kantor: Now how do you help them whittle down, uh, the choices, uh, because I think a lot of times if people aren’t familiar, I host a show about franchising. So I know a little bit about it. And I’ve interviewed hundreds of franchisors and franchisees. There are franchises for pretty much anything. I recently interviewed somebody that that is the franchisor of a crime scene cleanup franchise like that probably isn’t in most people’s consideration set when they’re thinking about, oh, I can own a business like they might be thinking about, you know, some sort of food or yogurt or something that they’ve seen at a strip center. But there are, I would say hundreds, at least hundreds, maybe thousands of choices when it comes to franchises.

Julian Reid: Absolutely. Again, there’s probably 4000 franchises in North America now. I wouldn’t, you know, I would I would say that, uh, certainly among the ones that are the most popular with the widest networks are in the hundreds. And to your point, they’re in a wide variety of industries. Uh, those industries range anywhere from from light manufacturing to retail, uh, B2B business to consumer business to business. Uh, in the service sector, there’s labor services, there’s professional services, uh, there’s like manufacturing That just goes on and on. And I work with with over 260 different, uh, franchise businesses and about a little over two dozen different industries. And I oftentimes tell my, my clients that I’m starting to work with them. I’m going to be trying to find things that fit the criteria that we discussed, you know, earlier. And in so doing, I’m a little bit less concerned about finding the vertical industry. Having said that, I’m certainly looking for something that’s going to be recession resistant. I do not want to be putting my clients into the next blockbuster Video. You know something that’s here today and gone tomorrow. If there’s a franchise I think you mentioned, I’m familiar with one in that particular space. And you’re right. Um, you know, a lot of people wouldn’t think about going into a business like that.

Julian Reid: But what you want to look at is something that’s going to be, uh, again, recession resistant, that’s going to have a lot of other potential characteristics, uh, that some people want to look for more than others. For example, maybe, uh, some people are trying to replace an income quickly, so they might want to look at something that’s that, uh, has a low overhead on the front end, gets to break even quickly and has nice margins. Well wasn’t it. What are some examples of those? Well, look at things in the service sector. There are many service sector franchises that you can actually start running those from your home office. Uh, you know, and instead of having a brick and mortar or retail location where you’ve got to either go find the real estate or build a building or get a longer term lease and then build it out. And then before you know it, you may have invested in all of that, but but that’s a that’s a big time line between getting a building and build out an inventory and training and everything before you ever make your first dollar. So that’s that works for a lot of different, uh, you know, people and depending on their situation. But if you’re looking to ramp up more quickly, you know, again, something in the service sector that you can start from home.

Julian Reid: And speaking of homes, uh, things that, uh, Plumbing, roofing, painting, things that you do to your homes. Those kinds of labor services are the types that have not only short, you know, low overhead, short time to break even and nice, uh, and a great time to, to break even, but also good strong margins. So those are, those are examples of the kinds of businesses that you can get into. So, um, you know, I think that’s a little bit of a long winded answer to your question, but there are a wide variety of things. And when I work with clients, I’m going to work with criteria that, again, are going to be looking at sort of recession resistant industries. And there are plenty of them, but something that’s going to really meet their their income and equity goals. Uh, I’ll speak briefly to the equity goals. For example, there are some real estate types of models where you’re going to not only invest and really build equity in a business, but potentially in the commercial real estate. If it involves a building and some people will will buy the the building as a commercial real estate investment as well. So those are those are just some examples.

Lee Kantor: So is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how you work with somebody? Explain. Don’t name who they are, but maybe share the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Julian Reid: Sure I was. I’ll give you an example or two. I was working with, uh, a former ibmer, and he had gotten to the point where he was tired of corporate life. He was tired of his travel. Um, he didn’t particularly feel like his authority was matching his responsibilities and his accountability. Um, and he said, you know what? I, I know a lot about business. I’ve got an MBA. And by the way, I’ve been a director level and, you know, not, uh, almost, almost a VP level. But the practical matter is I, I’ve, I just don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to talk to any recruiters. I want to become my own boss. So show me some things that I can do. So I. I worked with him, sent him through a series of assessments. Uh, and that’s part of what I do with all of my clients that I work with. We include the desk. We really spell out their goals along those three items that I talked about earlier, and then identify some of these lifestyle things that they want to address as well. And so in the particular case I’m thinking of, I showed my client three different business models and one of them immediately resonated with him. It was a model that was in the, uh, the sort of, uh, professional executive leadership and management coaching arena. And this franchise is well renowned. It’s a global franchise that trains professionals and executives on leadership and management, types of skills and practices. Uh, a lot of fortune 500 multinational companies have used this particular franchise business in their training of their not only their the people that they’re grooming for advancement, but for their middle management and even higher Hire and build collaborative groups within their their organizations to to subscribe to this type of leadership training.

Julian Reid: Uh, this gentleman was in Roswell, Georgia here. And he said as he got deeper into this, he said, you know what? That’s not big enough. And so he was, uh, he sold his house in Roswell, and he moved to San Diego, California, because he didn’t just want a single franchise. He loved this business model so much that he bought the area development rights for all of Southern California. And he moved out to San Diego, became the area developer, which is sort of a higher level licensing, franchising. And essentially he was able to sort of build the franchise by adding individual franchisees underneath his umbrella, if you will, and the different parts of Southern California. And in return for being an area manager, he did the, the, um, the development and the onboarding of the new franchisees out there at the local level, continuing training and so forth. All the co-marketing that went into the business. And so doing so it was a major, major investment for him. That’s exactly what he wanted to do. Three years later, he was franchisee of the year for that entire franchise network and really going gangbusters. So it was just a dream fit for him. Um, and I’ve had similar cases like that where again, to fit people’s particular goals, sometimes they might start a certain direction and then after they get into discovering more about themselves through this, this process of discovery, they might actually tweak or change their own goals in this case, in this gentleman’s case. So much so that he moved to California, but as a lifestyle change, um, and I’ve seen that happen with other clients as well.

Lee Kantor: So, so now as part of your go to market strategy, is it do you partner with other kind of do you have strategic partnerships with other kind of trusted advisors?

Julian Reid: Uh, well, I yes, absolutely. I’ve done some local networking over the years. I’m more so these days. I’m well connected within a number of different, uh, LinkedIn groups. I do some webinars. I did a webinar recently for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, where we had over about 360, about 360 attendees for a webinar that just learned about franchise business ownership as sort of an educational thing, you know, for, uh, for the alumni there. Uh, I have, uh, recruiters, executive recruiters who reach out to me saying, you know what? I’ve got a client that I’ve been working with him, and he’s, uh, you know, he’s he’s decided that he just doesn’t want to bother with the corporate thing anymore. He’s he’s been debating on whether or not to retire or go back to work. He he took the early retirement package. And, you know, I can’t I just I don’t think he wants to work with me anymore. But Julian I think he would he would like he’d like to work with you to see if there’s some sort of maybe semi absentee ownership models out there. So yes, I’ll collaborate and I’ll, uh, as sort of my, uh, part of my network are executive recruiters, and I’m happy to work with them with their situations that they’ve got clients that I can help. So so yes, those are just some examples of where people reach me and find me, uh, to to explore this whole idea of business ownership and in particular franchise business ownership.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody is interested in learning more, have a more substantive conversation with you. Uh, what is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Julian Reid: Well, I’ll give you the website. And then if somebody if people are missing a pen and pencil to write this down, I’ll give you maybe a second way to reach me. That may be easier to remember, but the the website is my first initial last name. And then uh. Com so I’ll spell that out quickly. Uh, my first name is Julian, so it’s j r e I’d read is my last name, so j r e d dot e source coach e s o u r c e c o Com. Uh, so that’s uh, j.com, but if you can’t remember all that, you don’t have something to write with. I would say just if you’ll Google me or look me up, search me on LinkedIn. It’s Julian j u l I a n and my last name is spelled read r e I’d. And I’m here in canton, Georgia and uh, probably going to come out pretty high in the search. Uh, I’m very active on LinkedIn, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find me there.

Lee Kantor: Well, Julian, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Julian Reid: Thank you. Lee, I enjoyed my time with you today.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.