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He’s Helped 15,000 Franchisees Win Here’s His Best Advice | Franchise Friday with Michael O'Driscoll
00:41:24
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, welcome everybody. I'm Jeff Duden. We're on the unemployable podcast. This is Franchise Fridays and today we've got a very special guest, Mr. Michael O'. Driscoll. Welcome, Michael.
- [00:11]
B
Hello, Jeff. Great to be here.
- [00:13]
A
Ah, it's great to be here with you, Michael. Let's start with a quick introduction. Tell us who you are and then what do you do for Homefront Brands?
- [00:24]
B
Sure. I'm Michael o'. Driscoll. I'm the president of Franchising and the Chief operating Officer at Homefront Brands, which means I'm responsible for wide variety of things including the brand teams, the call center, learning and development function, our onboarding team, and a little bit of the technology.
- [00:43]
A
Outstanding. And we're thankful that you are. How long have you been involved with franchising and can you tell us a little bit about what led you to it?
- [00:51]
B
Yeah, sure. So it's a long story, but I've been in the franchise sector for 38 years in four different countries. I got my start as a teenager working for my father who was the founder of what became Australia's largest residential building franchise. So residential building. So I started with him when I was 18 and have a look back.
- [01:15]
A
What gets you most excited about working with franchise owners today?
- [01:20]
B
Oh, great question. So I think it's a very personal thing for me. Over the years, as I've matured, I've become to really understand the transformative power of the franchise business model. If you think about what it did for my family, my parents were very working class, left school before they were 15 and through the franchise business model created wealth for the family and opportunity. And time and time again I have seen that happen not only at the franchisor level, but at the franchise owner level. And you can watch it. Whether they were somewhat successful beforehand as a business owner or they're a first time entrepreneur, when it works well for them, it is just an incredibly powerful and quite emotional moment when you see the realization on the face of the franchise owner that, wow, this is doing something I never thought I would be able to create on my own. And I think that's very powerful. Over the years I've just. If you ask a franchise owner directly who's been at it for a few years is either seeing success or has experienced success and have been able to do things for themselves and their family that they previously couldn't do, I still get a massive kick out of that. That's really exciting to see.
- [02:35]
A
Starting with your father's business and then you had A long career in businesses like the largest global courier franchise system. A business that would have been similar to a Home Depot in New Zealand. And then you also worked for Citibank on the lender side. Can you just touch on a little bit more of your experience?
- [02:56]
B
Yeah, I've been very fortunate and I think that's one of the reasons I stay with the franchise sector after all of these years. It's fundamentally been good to me and you can never turn your back on that. There is, I think, a time now I'm coming in my career, which is about, you know, making as strong a contribution to the improvement of the sector and the model as you can. You'd like to think you've learned something in those 38 years that's useful to people, but in terms of my career, it's been pretty eclectic in the sense that I haven't stuck necessarily with one industry or commercial sector. I've been able to move from one business sector to another. So starting in the residential building sector with my father, then moving to banking, I did nine years at Citibank starting their franchise finance business in Australia and in other countries. And from there I moved into the C suite and running different types of franchise brands from transportation to building materials to straight out home services. Right. And a little bit of retail. So I think again that's been a part of why I've been successful. I haven't been just stuck in one channel or business sector and I've been able to operate the franchise business model across several sectors. So it's been an interesting ride.
- [04:16]
A
We're sitting here, you've come to the United States, which is a large franchise market. It is, it's robust, it's capitalistic. It's some 12 or 15 times larger in population than Australia and certainly New Zealand as well, but much bigger than that. Why would somebody today in the States get involved in franchising?
- [04:42]
B
I actually think that's a really straightforward answer. And compared to the rest of the world, the franchise business model in the United States is very entrenched as a method of entrepreneurialism and wealth creation. You don't need to spend too much time convincing people that the franchise business model is a decent model to be in other markets around the world. It's less understood, perhaps not as sophisticated, maybe hasn't been around as long. So people are still educating themselves about the sector. There are many successful franchise brands all around the world that have started in their particular country and come to the United States. I've advised some of these companies the Reason people want to be here in the United States to operate a franchise business model is it is the most sophisticated and largest marketplace for franchise opportunities in the world. It is something where information and education is readily available. It's a place where the advisors to the sector know the business model very well as well. So I tell people, look, this isn't. It's entrepreneurial, but it's pretty sophisticated. This, there's no secrets about it. We know what good franchising looks like, we know what poor franchising looks like. There are plenty of places you can go to get information about how do you determine what's the best franchise model for you? Rather than just blindly sort of guessing, there are people that can advise you on it. This marketplace is rich with opportunity to make good decisions about franchise investment. Hmm.
- [06:17]
A
You've worked with thousands of franchise owners in your leadership roles with multiple brands on four continents. And if you included your activities as a lender, you've worked with tens of thousands.
- [06:28]
B
Yeah.
- [06:29]
A
Of franchise owners.
- [06:30]
B
Like. Yeah. In fact, I don't even think I'll ever get the number right. Something like 14 or 15,000 over the years. It's a lot.
- [06:36]
A
It is a lot. Have you been able to identify what makes an ideal franchise owner or what gives people maybe a better opportunity to succeed than others?
- [06:46]
B
I think so. Now these are pretty broad answers, but, you know, franchising is a broad church. So there's something for everyone. I think for me, the first thing that people have to look at is their ability to do robust self assessment is even though it's a very successful business model, it is true. It is not for everyone. Depending on your characteristics, your type, your attitude, your culture, you need to do a good self assessment. And that is, what am I looking for? What am I wanting out of life? So the big broad question of why would I want to do a wealth creation business like a franchise business model? Or maybe you just start with the idea of I want to do something better than what I do today and provide for my family or whatever it is. Right. And then they start to zero down on those choices. But for me, the first port of call is robust self assessment. Understand who I am, how is it that I work best, and where can I make the most impact with my strengths? So I think people need to start there. Too many people start with the idea of, I'd really like to make donuts. And well, that's very noble, but how do you know that you would be any good at that? And how would you know? Look, some people aren't built for business ownership. You know, they don't fully appreciate that. It is no less easier than being self being employed. Right. And it's actually harder. There's more stress. It's a different type of stress. You're more responsible because it's your money you're spending.
- [08:26]
A
Sure.
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B
It's your risk you're taking. It's not as if you can go find another job. So I think self assessment is the first one and then a robust understanding of what resilience is required of you to operate a business.
- [08:43]
A
Right.
- [08:44]
B
You just need to be able to tough stuff out. And if you're not that type of person, and that's not a criticism because again, not everyone is good at handling high stress situations.
- [08:54]
A
That's right.
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B
Or maybe they're not a great problem solver. Yeah. Maybe they're not a great manager of people. Maybe they're a solo operator. There's probably a business franchise business for you if you're a solo operator. It's probably okay. But I always start with people who are you and what are you trying to do. Yeah. And if they can't be honest with themselves about that, then I think you tend to make confusing business decisions after that. Yeah.
- [09:19]
A
I mean, how sticky is the wall?
- [09:20]
B
Right.
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A
If a problem hits you, are you in your career? You're used to just kicking it upstairs, kicking it over to hr, kicking somewhere else. When you're a business owner and a problem hits you, it, you got to grab it, you gotta, you gotta grab it, you got to assess it, you have to attack it and you got to deal with it. And you know, it's, it's something that we learn as business owners over time.
- [09:43]
B
Yes.
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A
Rush to the conflict, resolve it, get to it quickly. Bad news ages poorly. But if, if that is an offense to your soul and you don't like to do it, then that can be very, it can wear on a, on a new business owner.
- [09:59]
B
I liken it to being like, what's your level of accountability? So I liken it to like, it's when you get married, it's when you have children, it's another level of accountability. Right. It's no longer necessarily just about you. So. And owning a business is, you know, you might enjoy the benefit of the outcome there if it goes well, but ultimately you're going to be more accountable than you ever have been to yourself, your family, your customers and your team members. And I think you and I've seen, and we know great leaders in the franchise sector and you can see that they are deeply invested in accountability and I understand that they have a very important role in managing accountability. I've always been very impressed by that. You can see it in people. No, I'll take responsibility for that and I'll make sure that gets done.
- [10:49]
A
Yeah, logical follow on question. What are some of the misconceptions people have about franchising?
- [10:56]
B
Plenty, unfortunately. Look, for me, I think it's a bit cliche to say it these days, but I do think some people approach it as a get rich quick scheme still. Right. And it's true. Like there is. The sector has thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of success stories, wonderful success stories. We have many of them at home front. I mean, people come to us from all walks of life and do something they've never done before and are being successful at it. But for me, I think the get rich scheme, the get rich quick scheme is not helpful because anything good takes time. Now you can accelerate that because you're in a more systemized business structure. In a franchise business model where some of the guesswork is taken out because there are playbooks to follow, policies, procedures, there's training provided you don't have to go and find vendors, they're served up to you, there's guesswork taken out of it. Right. And legwork right. Here it is, right. You have to figure out how to make that work best in the territories that you've invested in. But then you've got a brand team that's there to support you and help you make those good decisions. So for me, I think realizing that there is work to be done, right, it's not just add water and watch it grow, it's like application of self, of that personal accountability. The idea that you just buy something and it's just going to operate by itself and money's gonna spin out. The bottom of it is a misconception that I still see and I think that's very unfortunate. It's a different way of managing risk going into a franchise business model. And people just need to be a bit more realistic about the effort part.
- [12:47]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's not exactly like a gold rush mentality, but it is in as much as many people get into it and they say, okay, I'm going to apply myself to this. And then they get into it and they apply themselves for six months and then they think, okay, the thing should be built, it should be running, it's now an atm. And that's just not the way business is. Because anything left unto itself will always go from bad to worse. So the moment you start not paying attention to what's going on with your money, your money has a way of going away.
- [13:19]
B
Yeah. Like again, like anything in life, deliberately managed usually gets a better result. But it's, there's a little bit of that and then I think people are misunderstanding. We teach this in training. Obviously you're in a marathon, not a sprint. Right, right. You know, and you've got to be mindful of the fact that generally if you're in a franchise business model, you're, you're signing a long term contract. You know, don't try and create the 10 year result in year one.
- [13:46]
A
Right.
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B
You'll kill yourself and drive your team insane. And that's not great leaning, frankly. And so you can be an aggressive investor up front because you want to scale quickly. That's great. But you need to realize that it is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. Right. And I think some people come into franchising with the idea I'll be in and out in two years or something like that. Yeah. And that's, that's not what it is. Right.
- [14:11]
A
You mentioned accountability already. What are some of the other common mindset shifts that franchise owners need to be prepared for in their first year?
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B
The first one is, well, we've already spoken about accountability. The second one is how am I going to lead? Because I think that if you, if, if you're coming in as a franchise owner and you've never built a team of people before, maybe you've inherited a team and maybe you had to restructure a team, but if you've never built a team from scratch and being responsible for a team that provides customer service, often in a business model that has a lot of repeat business opportunity, then you've got to think about your leadership skills. Because our most successful franchise owners are business builders in the true sense of the word, in that they know out of the gate, I'm here to build a team that's going to run a great business, do the right thing by the customer, and I'm going to train them and mentor them well. But I'm also going to invest in my own knowledge about the business. So even if you're creating a team to run it because you're viewing it more like an investment rather than an operating opportunity.
- [15:23]
A
Sure.
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B
You still have to come to the training and educate yourself about how the business works so that when you're measuring your team, you understand what you're measuring and you understand when they may be telling you things that aren't exactly accurate.
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A
Yeah. One of the business building analogies is you need to give away what you know the best.
- [15:42]
B
Yeah.
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A
So if, if you don't understand the sales process, what good sales looks like, you can't tell whether your salespeople are doing a good job or not. You have to go from sales to production to every aspect of the business. It's, it does behoove you as a business owner to be the most knowledgeable one in the building about the business.
- [16:02]
B
I agree. And then I would also say for first year franchise operators, taking profile in your community is essential.
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A
Okay, what do you mean by that?
- [16:13]
B
So you need to go out and let people know that you're the new business owner of this new business in these as you community and you become a responsible member of that community and participate in it because it's actually a driver of business.
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A
Sure.
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B
We talk about it here. We train people on the 90 day referral plan. Those actions you take every rolling 90 days to build profile and referrals in your community. Because I still believe, and this is the same thing all over the world if you ask me, is that most people in a local community or neighborhood are very happy to give business to the small business owner operator. Right, right. I myself make an active choice where I live if there's. Obviously we use home front brands where we can, but if we're needing something done around the home, you actively support local business ownership. Because again, like many other countries around the world, the small businesses of America are the key drivers of the economy.
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A
Right.
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B
And people will want to engage with you and know you as your, as the business owner in your neighborhood for that particular product or service. And we see it in our own networks those owners who are proactive in their territories, doing their community and referral based marketing are generating more success than others. Yeah.
- [17:37]
A
You can't be shy when it comes to face to face relationships in your community. And then with the Internet, one of the things that is most important now and especially going forward as these large language models rolls out and people are doing more search on AI type platforms, is this concept of authority. You need to be the representative authority for your service line in your geography online. And there's specific things that we're working with our franchise owners to do to be that authority. But if you're going to be a wallflower, it's not a good time. You, you have to be willing to put your face on the business and show up where you need to show up and do the requisite activities to make sure that people know who you Are. And you know, it's interesting about search. Search is, is evolving very quickly now again because more people are searching on these AI platforms, whether it's Claude or Grok or, or Gemini or Chat. All of these platforms. Yeah. And you know, you know, it's the essence of who's behind a business is what is actually emerging in the searches.
- [18:47]
B
That is true. But the great thing about all of that technology, particularly social media, it makes it actually pretty straightforward to build profile in your business.
- [18:55]
A
Yes, yes it does.
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B
And we have many of our owners, you see like some top rail fence guys sit in their truck in the morning if they're going out to do estimates and they offer and in part some knowledge around permitting if it may be required in their county. And it's like a couple of minutes at the camera. Yeah. But if you do that every day or a few times a week, it is actually not that difficult to build that profile in your community. The tools are great. They're all there. Now some people are a little generationally challenged by these tools sometimes, but again, there are plenty of people in our homefront family that will help you do that. Yes. And I just, I love watching them. I, you know, you see it across all of our brands with the top rail temporary wall systems, you know, photos of owners on job sites, talking to real customers. Yes. Doing installs, turning up at the local chamber event, coming to look, even if it's just sponsoring your kids, local sporting events.
- [19:53]
A
Sure.
- [19:54]
B
These are important community based activities that over time people notice and actually you get respectful because you're showing up. Yeah. It's important.
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A
It's no, no good to be the absolute authority in something if nobody knows about it.
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B
You got to tell them. And these days I, I do believe that the more information you give away, the more that comes back to you. Because people over time go, look, you're not asking for anything, you're just educating.
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A
That's right.
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B
But eventually people will remember that. And because you're not trying to close a deal every time you open your mouth.
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A
That's right.
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B
You're just, I'm going to tell you what I know.
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A
Yes.
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B
And if that builds credibility or trust with you, maybe I'll get the opportunity to do business with you at some point in the future. It works, just works.
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A
You've been a part of many great franchise brands and franchise platforms. What differentiates a good franchisor from the great ones?
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B
Well, first of all, good intentions are a good starting point. That is, yeah, the realization this is, I've spoken about this A little bit philosophical, this one. A good franchisor is one who understands that they're doing it to share the profits. Now, a franchisor needs to make money and franchisees need to make money.
- [21:15]
A
Yes.
- [21:16]
B
Right. They're not mutually exclusive. You cannot have one successful without the other. So it's incredibly important, I think, you find, if you're looking at franchise opportunities, a franchisor who gets the fact that this is a shared endeavor.
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A
Yes.
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B
Right now I'm doing it because I need to make money. You're doing it because you'd like to make some money, but we're going to do it together. And you're looking for people that understand, really understand and practice collaboration, consultation, engagement, joint decision making, consulting wide bodies of franchise owners for opinion before important decisions are made. Vital. Unfortunately, there are many that still don't do that. They think because they're the franchisor.
- [22:00]
A
Yeah.
- [22:00]
B
I've got to make all of these decisions. That's a mistake. Because you need to realize that the collective intellect of your franchise network is very powerful.
- [22:11]
A
Yeah.
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B
And I've seen too many franchisors underestimate that intellect and not tap into it. Inevitably, there is an answer to every problem that you might have sitting Amongst your franchisees 100%. You just need to engage with them on. And if you've not experienced it, being a franchise operator as a franchisor, some people might find that a little intimidating. Right. Because their perception of leadership is I must own all the decisions.
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A
Yes.
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B
When it's not. Actually, the most successful franchise models have an intimate relationship in the business partnership between franchisor and franchisee, where there is no fear about asking difficult questions or solving tough problems together.
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A
Yes.
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B
To me, that's the hallmark of a good franchisor. Yeah.
- [22:56]
A
If engagement and adoption are the hallmark of great, agile, successful, healthy, growing franchise systems, then collaboration from the franchisor to foster engagement and adoption is kind of the. It is the jiu jitsu of franchise management.
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B
Very much so.
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A
Yeah. I mean, you have to use all of the. You have to use all of the collective strengths of the entire organization and you have to unleash the thinking power of the organization.
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B
That's not abdicating your responsibility, though, as a franchisor. Right. Because ultimately the buck always has to stop somewhere.
- [23:33]
A
That's right.
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B
And besides being incredibly consultative and collaborative, ultimately a franchisor is also a custodian of the brand. Right. And they have to do things and make decisions in the interests of. Of the integrity of that brand on behalf of all the owners. So they can't, you know, by being consulting, by going into consulting with franchise owners and collaborating with them, it's a very fine line because again, if you're an inexperienced franchisor, the mistake is to do everything that they ask for. Right. Whereas you have to weigh things up on what is good for the entire brand. Right. And sometimes that puts you down a path where you do have to make some tough calls where you might disappoint some people.
- [24:18]
A
Sure.
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B
But that's, that's your job. Yeah. You have to do what is in the interests of the brand, not just you as the franchisor or your franchise owners.
- [24:31]
A
What are some things that candidates overlook when they're choosing a franchise brand?
- [24:38]
B
Well, I think it's all of the things we've spoken about, actually. But it's. Yeah, look, that one's really interesting. Again, I think they don't take the requisite time to do their research and they become pretty quickly emotionally wedded to a brand before they become commercially wedded.
- [24:55]
A
Okay.
- [24:56]
B
So ultimately they're doing it because they believe it's an opportunity that creates wealth for them in a way they didn't before.
- [25:05]
A
Sure.
- [25:05]
B
That it may be transformative to their family, you know, better house, better colleges, better. All that kind of stuff. Or starting on the path to create generational wealth, which this country has done so well over the years. Right. And it's really important that I think that people take the time to understand what is the right fit. For me, you know, it's no point spending $200,000 on a franchise that doesn't have the opportunity to scale and create the type of wealth you're looking for. Right, Right. Find one that does. Correct.
- [25:41]
A
Right.
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B
Because some people I've seen make a decision where they go. Oh, that's all I'm prepared to take right now in terms of risk. Right. Okay, fine. Maybe you've got to graduate through the ranks a little bit and get more territories down the track or buy another brand at a non competing business or something like that. Lots of pathways to wealth creation in the franchise business model itself. Just being one brand, you can do lots of things. So it's. To me, I think people don't spend enough time doing the research and they look past the commercials a little bit and understanding how the money works in the business.
- [26:16]
A
Got it.
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B
How do I make money in this business?
- [26:18]
A
Right.
- [26:19]
B
And they get more excited by and more emotional in their connection with the brand. First. It's still important. You still need that emotional connection that drives you. Right. That Gives you resilience.
- [26:31]
A
Well, I think the, the relationship breaks the ties.
- [26:34]
B
Yeah, that's right.
- [26:35]
A
Who do I. Once you find and evaluate a business that meets your requirements, do I feel good about these people? Do I trust that these people are going to be here? Are they going to be consistent? Like, that's how, what can I, what can I learn to understand what this is going to be like? Good when, when things are hard or tough? Because we people show themselves when things are difficult.
- [26:58]
B
Yeah.
- [26:58]
A
You know, how are they going to, how are they going to do. In a scrum.
- [27:01]
B
Yep, exactly. Right.
- [27:03]
A
Yeah.
- [27:03]
B
It can be an ugly mess, but, yeah, beautiful to the eye of the beholder.
- [27:06]
A
Yeah. Well, you got to pull together, you know, when there's a challenge in the marketplace. Look, business isn't static.
- [27:12]
B
No.
- [27:12]
A
It's very dynamic and we, we face challenges in the marketplace together, always.
- [27:17]
B
I think that's one of the powerful things about the franchise business model though. At the end of the day, and you've had, you've heard this term before, you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself. Now that's an old fashioned term in franchising, but I still think it is one of the fundamentals of good franchising.
- [27:31]
A
It is.
- [27:32]
B
Right. And I, as a franchisor enjoy collaborating with franchise owners. And we're very fortunate homefront because we've got some smart operators out there, we do some great backgrounds that help us solve challenges.
- [27:44]
A
Yes.
- [27:44]
B
We have an incredible group of franchise owners.
- [27:46]
A
Terrific. Just fantastic. I would have never imagined the caliber of the individuals that we have been able to work with.
- [27:53]
B
Well, without offending all of my franchisee friends from the past 38 years, I will say that this is by far and away the most capable group of franchise owners I've worked. It's been really impressive, actually.
- [28:05]
A
It has been.
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B
Yeah.
- [28:07]
A
Is there anything about home front brands that people maybe don't know on the surface, but maybe they should know a little bit more about?
- [28:17]
B
Yes, I, I think, and it's easy for us to say because we're very close to it, but for me, we're great. Oh, we're unbelievable.
- [28:27]
A
That wasn't so hard. That wasn't so.
- [28:29]
B
No. I don't think people really understand how deeply we think about things and care about. Like we really want every owner to go, well, we do. And we didn't come into this, all of us, all these old crusty ones that we've got in the brands with lots of experience, we can come into this thinking we'd be in and out of it at five seconds. We knew it would take time.
- [28:52]
A
Yes.
- [28:52]
B
Right. And we made a commitment not only to ourselves, but to our owners that, yeah, we'll make mistakes, but I think we've proven over the few years that we've been operating now that we will always muck in and correct it. Right, right. Without recrimination or hand wringing or. Why is it this way? Okay. That's not working. Best thing in the world. Let's just fix it. Right, right. Let's not dwell on what was happening. Here's the solution. And you've used that expression rush to conflict.
- [29:25]
A
Yes.
- [29:26]
B
All that kind of thing. I think we do that better than a lot of others.
- [29:31]
A
We certainly try.
- [29:33]
B
We try, but I think we do it really well. So people I don't think will ever fully appreciate and largely they don't need to. Right. Because they're here for the outcome at the end of the day. But the level of care and concern that we have, we. It's probably some of the highest level of thinking I've seen in some time, actually. And I think that's a. It's cultural.
- [29:57]
A
Yes.
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B
Right. But at the same time, it's necessary in the day and age we live in when people are getting a little bit hazy towards one another too quickly.
- [30:06]
A
Yeah.
- [30:07]
B
Right. You just need to sit back and say, how can I help you?
- [30:10]
A
We've lost our manners as a society.
- [30:12]
B
In a way, it's a bit disturbing, frankly. Yeah. I'm not saying we should go back to Victorian times, but we could probably practice a little bit more decorum from time to time.
- [30:21]
A
Somewhere in the middle.
- [30:21]
B
Somewhere in the middle.
- [30:22]
A
Fair enough. Do you have a favorite success story that you could share from a franchisee, either past or present?
- [30:29]
B
Oh, wow, there are tons. I'll tell you what, I was sitting in little old New Zealand, there's one that always comes to mind. And there was this guy who bought a residential building franchise. Not one my father had, but another one in New Zealand. It was actually started in Queensland, my home state, around the same time my dad started his business. So coincidental, they're in New Zealand. And I was at the New Zealand Franchise Awards Dinner one year and I happened to be sitting at the table with some finalists. And they were a regional franchisee in this brand for the northern part of Auckland, I think, a fast growing area of. Of New Zealand. And it was a husband and wife team. They put absolutely everything on the line to go into it from their corporate jobs and they'd been at it for eight years, had a great Run right. Had done really well. And I like to ask this question to all new franchisees I meet. And I said, so has this delivered for you beyond your expectations? And I just don't say anything else. And if there's silence while they think about it, I don't interrupt it. I just stare at them and I wait for the answer. And they basically said, I had no idea that using this business model, I could do what I've done to my family in the sense of my wife doesn't have to work, even though she works in the business with me, she doesn't have to. My kids go to university in a way that they're not in debt.
- [32:06]
A
Yes.
- [32:08]
B
And I've got my parents sorted. It became an incredibly. He got quite emotional. It was very. I don't think he actually had ever been asked that question before at that time. And that's what became clear to me. And I said, just out of interest, has. Have you ever asked. Has anyone ever asked you that question? Or have you stopped to think about it? Because the eight years has rushed by pretty quickly. Right. And he went, yes, it has. And I actually hadn't stopped. And his wife was crying, getting emotional about. Yes. As they were reflecting on that journey and what it actually had done, because they were just on the ride. Right. And you and I talk about this a lot. You have to take a moment to pause and reflect on what's been happening to you and be grateful for the good things.
- [32:53]
A
Yes.
- [32:54]
B
Right. So I think just now that I talk about them, I must reach out to them again and see how they're going. And there are lots of stories like that, but then there's also stories of people who were experienced business owners or who owned a franchise before, and they come to us and they tell us time and time again, and it's going to sound pretty cheesy, but I came because I believe in Homefront and its vision, and you are just great people to deal with. And when you get unsolicited comments from your franchisees about your team members that report to you, who go out of their way to say, you know, in our monthly surveys of owners, they say, shout out to, you know, Dylan, shout out to Kevin, or something like that. We didn't go chasing that. Right. They come to us and tell us. That tells me our people are absolutely doing it right by the franchise owner. Because without sounding unkind, it is not always compliments you get from franchise owners. So. But when you get those unsolicited acts of kindness, I call them, it's really encouraging.
- [34:02]
A
It is.
- [34:03]
B
It is.
- [34:03]
A
Everybody needs that. We're going to do the work regardless.
- [34:06]
B
Exactly.
- [34:07]
A
And we will always do our best the next three to five years in franchising. So much change going on right now with the advent of AI across all business. What do you see in franchising for the next three to five years? Any trends or any opportunities that will be different than they have been in the past.
- [34:33]
B
Okay, so here's something that I think will continue and that is, again, I've used the expression before. The franchise sector is a broad church. There is literally a business model for everyone. Sure. You just have to do the homework to find the one that suits you right now, whether you want to be a man in a van or chuck in a truck. You call it in the episodes.
- [34:54]
A
Or Guys on tights, hanging lights.
- [34:58]
B
Yeah, not my favorite one. Yes, you won't.
- [35:01]
A
Oh, that's our new brand.
- [35:02]
B
That's our new. Don't tell anyone.
- [35:04]
A
That's Guys. Guys and tights, hanging lights. Cut that.
- [35:06]
B
We've got our first 50 franchise owners.
- [35:08]
A
Yes.
- [35:09]
B
Fantastic. No, we. What I see is they're still. There's still mum and dad operators who want to change their life, owning a couple of territories and maybe building on that over time. I see. And I'll start with the ownership level. I see the continued investment by successful franchise owners in other franchise brands. And I certainly see private equity companies interested in buying successful franchise operators. Businesses.
- [35:39]
A
Yes.
- [35:39]
B
And scaling those.
- [35:41]
A
Right.
- [35:41]
B
Because when I talk about earlier the franchise sector in the United States being very sophisticated, this is one of the reasons why private money wants to own it, because they know it's a good business model. It used to be PE only bought enormous firms, go publicly listed, whatever it was. But no, they want to own high quality small business assets that serve great markets that have a predictable financial performance and still have a scalability to it. So that's what I see happening at the ownership level. There's something for everyone still in this wonderful broad church called the franchise sector. And then I see what every other sector is facing and that is the rapid changes in technology and how it affects business. It is both inspiring and concerning, and making sense of it helps you eliminate the stress around it. So what I like about Homefront is that we are deeply vested in pursuing AI for the benefit of the owner. Right. So I see in the next three to five years, businesses getting more straightforward to run, more easy to monitor because the data becomes intuitive and predictive using AI tools. So you can make faster, better decisions. Right. I can See in the longer term in labor based franchises like home services models, that robotics starts to play a role where you don't necessarily have the same number of humans on a job site as you do today because there's some level of robotic automation conducting that service or installing that product. Right. We're seeing some early signs of it now. We're obviously very deeply interested in that because I don't think it's a question of replacing humans. We know right now in our Window Hero brand that we have operators and their employees getting their FAA license to operate the drones to do commercial cleaning. That's a retraining and reskilling of an existing person to become more productive.
- [37:48]
A
That's right.
- [37:49]
B
And then the same will happen in other services that we have in robotics. And it might be that it, it create robotics create such huge job site productivity that owners will be able to do more jobs in a day. Right. Because labor restricts how much you can scale to a degree.
- [38:08]
A
That's right.
- [38:09]
B
Whereas AI and robotics can unlock some of that restriction. That's right. And I'm more bullish about it. But I am also aware that we will have to see more reskilling of people because they'll still need to know how the product and service works, how to troubleshoot, how to repair the little robot that might be broken down. Right, right. I can see a great shift in the home services sector in particular, becoming an incredibly sophisticated business model.
- [38:38]
A
Yes.
- [38:38]
B
Right. That is still attractive for investment because franchise owners will go. This means I can, Instead of doing four jobs a day, I can be on 10 different job sites a day. And that is like scaling something further and possibly grabbing more market share than you would previously be able to do with two guys in a truck or something like that.
- [39:00]
A
That's right.
- [39:00]
B
So I'm pretty excited about. Does require a lot of deep strategic thinking and leadership on the franchisor's part to get there. All of it.
- [39:09]
A
It certainly does. Last question. If somebody's looking in the mirror and they are on the fence about franchising, what is the one question, the most important question that they need to ask themselves?
- [39:22]
B
Well, you and I have spoken about this before, but I always say don't die wondering if you think you should then do it. And you speak to this as well. Whatever decision you make, fully commit to it.
- [39:34]
A
That's right.
- [39:35]
B
Do not come into a franchise business model 70% of the way there because you'll get 70% of the result.
- [39:42]
A
That's right. Well, or maybe. Or less.
- [39:44]
B
Or less. Right. Yeah. And you'll always be disappointed.
- [39:47]
A
Yes.
- [39:47]
B
Right. Anything. Think of any time in your life when you've been successful. It is because you applied yourself 100% above what was necessary to get there.
- [39:57]
A
That's right.
- [39:58]
B
Right. And you did it because you believed in it. Right. Right. And belief and a little bit of self confidence go a long way towards being successful. Right. Because it's, it's a hard thing to do. So if you're sitting on the fence and you're wondering whether you should, I would ask you to look in the mirror and ask yourself this question. What is stopping me from creating a better future for myself and my family? And then examine that and make a decision around that. But whatever decision you make, thousand percent committed.
- [40:29]
A
Follow up question, am I committed?
- [40:31]
B
Yes.
- [40:32]
A
Michael, this has been amazing.
- [40:33]
B
Love it.
- [40:34]
A
Thank you for being on Franchise Friday. Thank you for everything you do with Homefront Brands and for you out there. This has been Jeff Duden on the Unemployable podcast. If you want to learn more about Homefront Brands, you can Simply go to homefrontbrands.com check out our amazing brands there. Get in touch with us.
- [40:50]
B
We'll get right back to you.
- [40:52]
A
And of course, as always, you can go to the link below. Click on it for a free copy of my book, the Business Athletes Regimen for a Great Life Through Better Decisions. It'll help you through those inflection points that you may be at. It's also just a great read and if you got a wobbly table, you can stick it right under there. It'll keep you from. It's a multipurpose tool. Discernment by Jeff Duden and everybody. So again, Michael o', Driscoll, President of Franchising, Chief Operating Officer, Homefront Brands. I'm Jeff Duden. We've been on the Unemployable Podcast. Thanks for listening.