Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for joining us. Our goal is to help you connect to real people who found success turning their side hustle into a main hustle, and we hope you can too. I'm Adam Kaler. I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, my co-host. Let's get started. All right? Welcome back everybody to the Side Hustle City podcast. Kyle in the studio today.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Wow, finally Sitting right here, finally had one that I can make. Yeah, there we go. One of the worst co-hosts in the history of entertainment.

Speaker 1: 0:39

Well, it's fine because one of your favorite subjects is about to be talked about today, because we've got james holofsky on the show. He is a franchise expert, works with a bunch of athletes, helping them uh get some money after they, uh, their, their career ends. It may not be the the money they think they're going to make, based on what their current salaries are, uh, but it's uh. You get enough of them and you're doing okay, right, absolutely, yeah, you get.

Speaker 3: 1:04

And you're doing okay, right, absolutely. Yeah, you get enough. You're doing okay, that's for sure. Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Well, james, I appreciate you being on the show today and I love this subject. Kyle loves this subject because Kyle's actually thinking about maybe picking up some franchises.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Well, yeah, like the the, the, the conversation that's going on in our houses. Our kids are getting older and you know my wife they can work for you. Yeah, well, they could.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:28

They probably like it. Well, cayman would still want to do the construction side of it, but Elijah would definitely would want to work for us. The thing is is that Allison's doesn't have to be a stay at home mom anymore and she's been dying to do something where she could handle her own business and take the money and reinvest it in a way that she saw fit, which is she wants to buy cabins down in the gorge, which is a state park here in Kentucky that's pretty, pretty heavily visited from people from greater.

Speaker 2: 1:54

Cincinnati, um, in different parts of the state of Kentucky. Go there and they have they're really building up the area to, you know, glamp. So you have these nice cabins with hot tubs, and she just wants that. She wants to have a place like that where she can go. It's two hours away from home, but she also wants to be able to get a lake house in a place we go into, a North Carolina, as I will. Money doesn't grow on trees, buddy, so you better, you better, figure this shit out. Yeah, and I thought that in. Well, this is that you work. Now you have your money to do whatever the hell it is you want to do with it, and you use this to build your wealth. Well, you know, like we're in a position where we don't need to use this to pay for our mortgage or our cost of living or anything like that. This is, this would be extra money.

Speaker 1: 2:40

This would be retirement money you could kind of put away if you wanted to or do big things with it.

Speaker 2: 2:44

Yeah, or something that Chit Shoe might be. It might turn successful Like he was. We were talking off air here about one of his clients that they said well, if one of the revenue from one of them isn't a good enough for you, let's do three of them. That's right.

Speaker 1: 2:58

That's right. Well, james, you're going to tell us all about it, like, what are some of the franchises that you seem to like the most? I know there's a um, you know there's. There's a lot of people out there.

Speaker 2: 3:10

They're different personality types, some folks you know are hands-on, start with like a typical process. Like somebody contacts you, they contact you.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Sorry, not though no, no, this relates. This relates because everybody's different about what they want out of a franchise.

Speaker 3: 3:25

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So when someone contacts me I'm going to tell them hey, let's talk about what your goals are. Why do you want to get into the franchise business? It could be many different scenarios.

Speaker 3: 3:41

Just backtracking to what we were saying earlier was I had a guy that was played for the Atlanta Braves, was the number one draft pick but never actually made it to the show, but he was a triple A world first player, he. He then retired from the game and he got into corporate America and his family is getting a little bit older the wife and kids. The wife doesn't want to be a stay-at-home mom anymore and he's like well, I don't really like corporate America, I kind of want to transition out of it. So what he did? He got into a dog grooming business to where the wife's going to run the day-to-day. The kids are going to help out. He is also going, you know, when I get to unit number three, I think that's when I'm going to transition out of my job and into it. So the family's going to build one and two, he transitions out for three and then they go from there if they build more and just keep on adding on.

Speaker 3: 4:41

So there's different ways to approach it. So we talk about approach game plan, what the athletes are, owner operators, because they still are playing or they don't really have the time they want to get a manager to run the day-to-day. So we talk about owner operator passive model, what kind of investment we're looking at 200K or below, 200k or above, and what are the goals of it and what are the industries that you like and I have over 500 brands that I represent that I can help find the right fit for them. I will say you know everyone kind of goes, oh, shaq, and the restaurants and restaurant industry is great at it. Well, my background before I did do this was in the restaurant business.

Speaker 3: 5:33

I don't really recommend that for somebody who doesn't got into the restaurant business. They would have to have a great team and it's one of the highest investment levels out there in the franchise world and it's one of the most riskiest ones and your margins are 10, 15 percent as opposed to. I could get you into dog grooming for 200 K a unit and get you 30, 40 percent margins and your money's back within the first year. We do that all day long over a restaurant. Yeah, within the first year, we do that all day long over a restaurant?

Speaker 1: 6:04

Wow, yeah, and most restaurants, I mean especially you know the the more I guess, employee intense restaurant types, not like a Dunkin Donuts where maybe you need two or three people there I'm, you know bigger restaurants, things like that, and restaurants are always known as kind of a bad investment anyway.

Speaker 2: 6:22

Like 60 percent of them tank in the first year.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Yeah, but like a Dunkin'. I mean you're selling coffee. There's usually higher margins in coffee. I think the average Dunkin' owner brings in maybe like $100,000 or something net after it's all said and done, which you'd think it'd be higher than that.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Well, I have three commercial buildings and they've all got some sort of food service in them.

Speaker 1: 6:47

I have no idea how that happened. It just they just did it, just it just happened. Well, we got commercial kitchen down the basement. We got a lady making you know a million plus down there, uh, you know, doing catering. But what are some of the top things you see right now, like, say, say somebody came to you and you didn't know him from anybody you know, cause we don't know who's listening to the podcast right now. You didn't know him from anybody. What would be the five, say businesses or the tight industries that you would kind of put people into right now? Do you think?

Speaker 3: 7:08

Well, definitely the pet industry. Slot margins are great. So anything in the pet industry comes to dog grooming, dog boarding really great strong margins, one where you use you can get a manager to do the day-to-day so you don't have to be the owner, operatoroperator of it. That's a really good one. Health and wellness is really big. So IV hydration, iv bars, red light therapy, muscle recovery, all very high margins and very sought you know, sought out businesses for sure. So that kind of the health and wellness dog, you know, dog grooming definitely are one. It depends on the area but you know there's a lot to be just you wouldn't even think about it. But it would be window washing really high margins and window washing there is some competition but you could do very well in that. As well as the home service market, hvac very high margins in the HVAC industry. As well as car industry. You do have car accessories, bed lining and trucks of stereos and and window tinning very strong margins in there as well.

Speaker 2: 8:30

I mean, you seem like you. If you're, you've got professional athlete clients, so it seems like you're pretty well connected. How did you get started in this Like, how did you become the point man for all these professional athletes that's come say, hey, I don't want to be on the 30 for 30 broke episode two. I want you know, I want to make this income for the rest of my life and I'm going to have to do it through you know business, my own business, and I don't want to run the risk of starting something from ground up and it fails. I'd rather have something that's already cash flowing. How did you become that person?

Speaker 3: 9:05

Well, I wish I was that person for all of them, but it was definitely a little bit difficult. My career was in the restaurant industry, was a regional director for a fast food restaurant, went into a pizza restaurant that had one unit and they decided to franchise. So I helped build that over to a hundred units. So then the largest franchisee of that company said, hey, come work for us and and help me run my system and my restaurants and let's do a couple more franchises. Turns out they were two NFL football players that own the own the franchise. They were brothers and they we did. We did our. We did our pizza restaurants. We did another ice the franchise they were brothers and we did our pizza restaurants. We did another ice cream franchise. We did our own coffee shop model and we did our own dough creamery.

Speaker 3: 9:54

Then one of the brothers retired and the other one got hurt, couldn't fulfill the rest of his contract, and they decided, hey, the restaurant business is tough. We all kind of decided that. They decided they were going to go into the tequila business and I have nothing against the tequila business, they're doing very well. It really wasn't my expertise. So I decided I was going to go into the franchise world and I always being around the brothers and the athletes, I saw all the people, even their best friends, would just try to get them into invest into the craziest schemes you could even think of out there. They just kind of money grab.

Speaker 3: 10:31

And I just said you know, when I do this I want to focus on athletes. Believe me, I love all the professionals that are out there, love to help them get out of corporate America as well, but I also wanted to help the athletes to where they can make really good investments and smart choices on franchise that I showed them. So I didn't want any. You know I'm tired of people that were taking advantage of them for sure. So from my relationship with the brothers I knew some people athletes that are out there and just kind of built that network. I go on a lot of celebrity golf tournaments where I meet some athletes and do speaking about franchising and it's always very well received there. So I'm always kind of branching out and seeking, you know, more athletes on a daily basis, of course.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Well, kyle is a you know, he's a first round draft pick of the freight broker industry. I would say at this point in his career. If, if there was a draft, kyle would go like one or two, maybe three. I mean, if you know there was an injury or something, he might drop as low as three yeah, I'd be like the ryan leaf number one, number one draft pick type a little combustible he might slap us.

Speaker 2: 11:41

I might slap a reporter and yell at him in the locker room. Tell him to get out.

Speaker 1: 11:49

Look, James, he'd have to tear his ACL at the beginning of the draft to drop as low as three.

Speaker 2: 11:51

That's how good Kyle is In real life. I tore my meniscus in my other knee, so I tore it. I had a surgery right before Thanksgiving and now I have it again in my other knee. There you go.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Well, if his MMA career.

Speaker 2: 12:03

Yeah, I think jiu-jitsu's done.

Speaker 1: 12:04

If his jiu-jitsu ever takes off, James, he's going to be coming to you. He's going to need it. Yeah, when he's like one of the top 10 MMA fighters in America.

Speaker 2: 12:14

I just want to go for sanity. I want to. If I were to do it, it would be because I want to replace my income and I want to be the charge of my own destiny with something that's already been proven to work, Like it was something with a, with a track record, and it's like just go Well, say say, kyle's making I don't know 250 a year right now, right before taxes, and he wants to get out of this indentured servitude he's in uh, even though he loves his company.

Speaker 1: 12:42

What? What would you tell hey man, here's what you need to do, here's how much money you need to have, here's how much money we need to find for you, maybe SBA loans 7A or something like that. What would you tell Kyle?

Speaker 3: 12:55

So if we're looking at we want to make $250,000, I would tell Kyle one thing is and I'm picking it on it pretty much you want to replace the income. So let's look at investments in that vein. If you went out and bought real estate and tried to flip houses because that's what everybody thinks is so easy to do, it's risk-free which it's not easy. It's not risk-free but the real estate market's a long play, which it's not easy. It's not risk-free, but the real estate market's a long play and it doesn't replace an income. I mean, you're not going to buy one property replace your income In the franchise world. You're going to go to a proven system that an athlete or CEO or business person they're going to give you the playbook to follow, so your chances of succeeding are much greater and they're going to give you that ongoing support as well as all the franchisees in the system. You'll be able to call the guy down the street and go hey, I have this problem. He goes yeah, I had that my first year too. Here's what you do. So you really got a really great network. So let's just say, well, that's kind of the the, what we want to replace about 250 K income. Let's just, I always go because it's hot right now. I always go. Well, you like pets? Let's.

Speaker 3: 14:08

Let's look at the dog grooming industry. We could get one unit about for about 200 K total investment all in and I would say that you probably could do about 200K and above on that one unit. But maybe if we want to replace that salary, let's look at two units. So we're looking at an investment of 400K that we do. Let's look at going to SBA loan. If we want 400K, we probably need about 20% of that in liquid cash, 20 to 30% that we can show the bank that we have skin in the game. And let's get our SBA loan and let's look at doing two units. And the great thing about a couple of the dog grooming concepts out there is they have reoccurring revenue. One of them does $45 a dog, unlimited times. They can bring it in a month. So you're blowing away your competition right there and typically that one. If you get up to 500 dogs, you're making 300 K profit per unit.

Speaker 2: 15:13

So are you able to then, if I, if we go to you and we're like, all right, I like this dog grooming idea, but the city that I live in is pretty well to do and there are a thousand for a city of 25 000 people, there's probably 10 dog grooming area, like companies in my, in my little city there. Are you able to say, okay, that's fine, so, but this geographical area here only has this many dog grooming facilities or companies per 10,000 people. This is where we would put you anyway, or is it something like it's up to me to find a location?

Speaker 3: 15:48

No, the franchise, the franchisor, usually has all those good stats. I have some of them available. I have some of them available. I always like to refer the clients to the franchisor because they have the stats and they know the exact demographic that they're looking for. So they're the experts for their customer. So they will have the demographics around of going hey, yes, we do think it would be a great area, even though there might be two or three in there. We think we have a good enough marketing strategy to overcome that and that's a great thing too. Of, hey, if you're talking with the franchisor and you kind of get that doubt, well, I really think I'm saturated.

Speaker 3: 16:27

Well, let's look at something else. Let's look in the health and wellness area and let's go into an IV bar that does a, that does um, chiro therapy in it and red light therapy Uh, I think that would do really well in there. Uh, you know all in one building. So the, the, that that would go really well. Or let's do a uh, if there's kids events and kids sports, let's do a muscle recovery studio that works on recovering kids muscle recovery tapes, their ankles before events. We have a mobile unit that goes out to soccer tournaments, basketball, baseball events. We do composite boots for muscle recovery, we do cold compression therapy as well, as we have red light as well. So many different ways we can attack and look at a specific area, and also, really, it's up to the client to go. Yeah, I'm really passionate about this. I think this is a great fit for me.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Yeah, especially athletes, I would think with the red light therapy and some of the stuff you just talked about. Now here's a good question. So my wife already owns a business and there's probably other people out here that are own. You know they own a business. She just does facials on women right now. This is just she. They come in, they get facials boom out, right. You know, with the economic downturn, these facials, you know an hour session could be like 400, right, and they leave with products and things like that. So if she wanted to kind of take that business right she she's got that core business already. Is there a way for her to tack on a franchise in the health and wellness space that works with what she's already doing? That she could then sell to her current client base but they could also bring in this other revenue stream like a red light therapy or something therapy or something.

Speaker 3: 18:20

Yeah, absolutely, she could easily do that there. You could. You could add a franchise into an existing business. Definitely. I'd probably say maybe you know hair extensions would be a great business. To add onto that, there's a hair extension franchise in Phoenix that's doing a million dollars a year just hair extensions, just because there's not a lot of people that do it right and do it the right way. So, yeah, there's definitely a lot of add-on business For a salon.

Speaker 1: 18:48

That would be amazing if you're not already doing hair extensions. And then the idea is that these franchises are sending you business, so they may have a website somewhere where or they're helping you with search engine optimization or local search or some of these other things. But talk a little bit about how does being part of a franchise actually help you from a, like, a client acquisition perspective?

Speaker 3: 19:13

So, like the franchise, support from a client acquisition, definitely yeah. So let's, let's see we have a franchise that does. There's a three-in-one franchise out there that does $7 million a year. They do tree trimming, they do lawn care not mowing lawns, but lawn care, treating lawns and pest control. So that's the franchise, they do three-in-ones. They actually do all the marketing, social media for you. But they also have a call center where they have someone that getting back to the clients booking appointments for you. So those are some things to look for if it's a client-based acquisition company that you're looking at. They definitely help with lead gen because they know sometimes lead gen is everything and marketing is everything to get in business is everything and marketing is everything to get in business. So a lot of them are definitely on the lead gen marketing game and, and how you know, call centers out there for you marketing. All of them have marketing programs that that are intrude and and tried and put through the fire of of ways that work for them.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Well, see, cause it makes sense, like for my wife. So she already owns her business, right, but she's got to do her own lead gen. Now, right, the economy's down, people aren't spending a bunch of money on luxury businesses. You know, rich people are the first ones to start cutting back because you know they're smart about their money. Right, and you've got a potential opportunity. If you already own a business like that in the beauty care industry, there may be a franchise she could tack on that's doing lead gen out there that could send her clients for a completely different thing Red light therapy, say.

Speaker 1: 21:03

They come in for a light therapy and then they start using her other services as well. So they could send you a client that's typically worth, you know, maybe $10,000 over the course of a year. That turns into a client that's worth $30,000 over the course of a year in the luxury space. I mean these, uh, she's got one client to spend 60 grand a year with her. So the circles you run in, yeah, well, I mean yeah, the circles you run in. So they're the circles that you oh well, yeah well, her she's, she runs in those circles I run with hood people, but so she, so she's. So she's bringing um. You know she's bringing in another business that's actually doing the lead gen and all that work for her. But those clients are worth way more to her than just red light therapy. They could potentially level up and become clients that want to get facials once a month.

Speaker 3: 21:54

Sure, and I've had clients that have had some certain exact scenario, kind of what you're explaining, and they've done where they've had the space next to them in their business that's opened up and they put a franchise right next to it and it was. It was almost like owning dual franchises, because you're using the marketing skills of this to the one next door and still drive you're driving both businesses.

Speaker 1: 22:12

She actually had the office next to her open up and they busted out the wall and put a doorway in, and now she's got a bigger space, so that would actually apply to her as up, and they busted out the wall and put a doorway in, and now she's got a bigger space, so that would actually apply to her as well. So, but then you got people like me who and maybe some of these athletes as well that I own my own businesses. I'm busy a lot. I'm running for office right now here locally. You know I've got a lot going on, but I wouldn't mind making an extra hundred grand a year, you know, and, and you know, I could go out and get a loan and throw it at a Dunkin' Donuts or whatever and have somebody else operate it for me. I don't think Shaq works at many of the Papa John's restaurants that he owns, but for somebody like me, I'm doing okay, but maybe I want to open a franchise and find people to work there. What kind of stuff's out there for me?

Speaker 3: 22:54

Well, mostly anything in any industry Like, we'll have one client that is into a gym. So you would think, wow, you're going to have to put a lot of time into this gym. Well, not really necessarily. If you find the right franchisor that's able to support it, that's really good in there you're looking at. They help you hire the manager. They help you hire the manager. They will go through your screen, do the interview for you and present the candidates to you and go. There's three to four different candidates that we really like. Pick one.

Speaker 3: 23:27

So they help you hire the manager. And now you're the athlete and you really have to manage the manager. That really isn't going to be as time-consuming, that really isn't going to be as time consuming. But then also, the franchisor, in a way, is really dealing with the manager on a day-to-day basis. Because if they have really good support in this particular model, this gym franchise has a franchise consultant and all this consultant does is look at all the numbers for the gyms every day and see what the KPIs were Did you hit labor, did you hit this? And they're sending out emails and text messages to the actual manager. So your franchisor is actually helping you manage your manager and do the day-to-day so you could get a lot of support with the with the right franchise of hiring, of helping and policing your own people and helping you run your business.

Speaker 2: 24:26

Yeah, I would assume that was that would be a big part of the education is watching how the franchise or communicates with the management. Cause I mean, I, I, I would think that we would I would be more hands off from the gig from the get-go, just because, a I don't have the time and b I don't have the knowledge to run it efficiently compared to somebody who's you know yeah, like going to dunkin donuts.

Speaker 1: 24:50

I just don't know how to run one.

Speaker 2: 24:51

You know it's so it's like an education course. So, like the, you're cutting down all your margin for error and your your learning curve from. So when you go from unit one to unit three, you know exactly what your manager should be doing. You be, you can. You can nip it in the bud before you know corporate even takes a look at your store or whatever.

Speaker 1: 25:13

That's right, yeah, and. And I mean if, if or whatever. That's right, yeah, and. And I mean if, if, if it's like me, just somebody who's already owns businesses, or like you you're working a full-time job. I just want to make a little extra money, it, you know, I'm willing to go out and get an SBA loan, put it into there, as long as the thing's going to net me maybe another 30 to $50,000 a year.

Speaker 1: 25:31

If I've got to pay a manager, I realize you know they've got to make money too. But you know, if I'm netting 30 to 50 extra thousand dollars a year, that's nice, you know, and I could use that. I could leverage that then to buy another franchise. Buy another franchise, you know, and then after a while you get enough of them and maybe you hire this manager is like your regional manager. If you got two or three of them, you know it may not be a big deal Pay them a little extra to manage or oversee those other two operations that you may decide to buy. But I mean, in that case, in that scenario, say it's a Dunkin' Donuts right, average Dunkin' Donuts person's making maybe a little over $100,000 a year, okay, if they had to bring in a manager. What does that reduce the net down to that they would take home?

Speaker 3: 26:14

You're probably looking at $60K on average of what you're paying the manager. So you're looking for you know you got an additional $40K in profit. That's out there. And then also one thing to keep in mind that a franchise a lot of people do think if you're in a franchise, you are into that, you can't sell it. A franchise is your asset, it's your business. You can sell a franchise after being in it two, three years. If you got your money back and you decide, you know what, I don't want any more of this, I just kind of want to be done and just retire completely, you can sell your business off it, even though it is a franchise. That's common practice and the franchise will help you do that right.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Sell the Chick it is a franchise, that's, that's common practice and the franchise will help you do that right. So the chick, yeah, they help market it and will help you do that 100 your chick-fil-a in newport, the one you love so dearly.

Speaker 1: 27:07

I love it. That was that just sold. Did it sell? Oh, I didn't know, but the owner can't, because the owner never really owns it. They're essentially like a manager, but maybe they sell their.

Speaker 2: 27:15

They sold something for seven. Wow, that's not bad.

Speaker 3: 27:18

Yeah, the owner never really owns a Chick-fil-A, they're just a profit share in their system.

Speaker 2: 27:24

Maybe they had a share. It was listed.

Speaker 1: 27:26

Yeah, they like pay for themselves, a job is really what it is. Like you pay for a management position in a Chick-fil-A or something crazy like that, but yeah, but I mean there's tons of stuff out there that you could do and I'd be happy with you. Know, I don't want to be greedy.

Speaker 3: 27:47

I mean $30,000, $40,000 extra a year if I'm paying a manager seems like a kind of a no-brainer. Yeah, oh yeah, and it really really makes a lot of sense to do that. And, like you said you said it right Then you then you do another one. You know, build, get another territory, get another franchise, expand your territory. And then you take that great manager that's been with you from day one and you make them the regional and you can build a little empire of franchises. Absolutely, that's a that's a great way to go and a great thinking of building upon building. You know, you really, yeah, you can get into a franchise and and only have one and that's that's great, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you have that long-term and want to build, I believe you know multi-unit is the way to go. If you, you should always go with that first franchise, go. Okay, when do I want the next one? You know what about what? What point do I want that one?

Speaker 1: 28:42

And it's probably good to stick with that same group, I would guess, whatever that is just kind of like. I don't want to own a Duncan and a Wendy's.

Speaker 3: 28:45

I probably just want to own two Duncans, right, right, yeah, definitely would be one thing to stay with. Or you got into let's say you got into the restaurant business. You have no idea what you were in for, but you're still making pretty good money. But it's going. There's a lot of headaches. Then look for another franchise, look for you know, look for IV muscle recovery on that side, and then you'll go gosh.

Speaker 1: 29:08

This is so easy to run when there's only one to two employees compared to, you know, 20 to 30 at a restaurant, for sure to 30 at a restaurant for sure, when I've always heard the lowest failure rates are at things like car washes, uh any kind of um uh route for vending, uh, there's, you know, those kind of businesses, laundromats but they seem to be hard to find fedex does.

Speaker 2: 29:32

Fedex does um the routes too like fedex like an amazon route. No like, oh for no like just like FedEx, they'll have a specific routes that they run in cities because they're all owner operators. Yeah, so they'll sell their routes Just like a bread truck guy would.

Speaker 3: 29:47

Like a bread guy. Yeah, like a bread guy. Yeah, there's that out there for sure. That makes some sense as well. You know, there's just many different, different ways you could go on a franchise. There's also some franchises that do clothes, recycle clothes, where they have bins all over their territory and then the the bin actually has a chip in and go, okay, it's time to come get it. And then you come and get the clothes that go out, and then you take those clothes and go sell them to Salvation Army for a profit or or or different vendors like that as well.

Speaker 1: 30:26

Well, I got married in Italy and we were in Milan and I got a suit, made Milan right. Well, we go past some of those bins and there's designer clothes stuffed in the bins, like pouring out of them, Like what the heck am I doing Getting a suit? Man, I could just went in his bin. Look at all this stuff. I mean you're in Milan. It's like all designer stuff they're throwing away, Like Gucci.

Speaker 2: 30:43

It wouldn't be the first dumpster I've been through.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Yeah, man, whoever's benefiting from that dumpster is from that, from that clothes dumpsters. They look great, like their whole outfits, nice and everything. But yeah. So I mean, if I was looking for a franchise, I would say I want something with like a low failure rate, something that's in demand, maybe something a brand that's on its way up, like I would have loved the Dutch Brothers franchise, but then they went corporate, they stopped allowing new franchisees and I was in Colorado Springs and I went there and the line was down the street and I'm like what is going on with this place? I need to own one of these and I looked it up it's too late.

Speaker 3: 31:17

Yeah, yeah, they, they, they went all corporate there's. You know, the coffee is pretty, pretty a good demand for sure. There's some brands out there that are up and coming, and then there's also a brand out there that goes hey, you know what, I will build you a coffee shop, I will give you the recipes, I will give you the training, the opening, training, some support in the end.

Speaker 3: 31:41

And all you have to do I'm not going to charge you any royalties, all you have to do is buy the coffee from me and they're doing the build out for about 250k and so that's cheap because most coffee shops are build outs 500 to 800 K and they're doing the build out for 250 K and they're just like just buy the coffee from you and they have a vested interest because you know they want you to be successful, because you want they want you to buy the coffee from them. So it's kind of a win win. You get it with. You still get the support. You get the nice reduced cost of building the building. Uh, you still get the support. You get the nice reduced cost of the of building the building and, uh, you know, you still have that support I love it, man.

Speaker 1: 32:24

So what are some of the um, your favorite passive type of franchises you would recommend right now for people like, say, an athlete, right, what would you recommend to them? I mean something in sports, health fitness. Probably, if it's an athlete. Probably if it's an athlete, yeah.

Speaker 3: 32:39

So if it's an athlete, we are again, I keep saying this but we're going in the dog grooming area passive, have the manager run it. We either do that. We either do boarding. We are doing the IV drip therapy. We're doing some gyms Believe it or not some really good passive gyms that provide great support that can do that. We're going to do, obviously, the muscle recovery.

Speaker 3: 33:08

I've had some athletes that have just said, for instance, this one athlete. He owned his own wine company and he was tired of it. He's just like you know, it's not really my passion. So we looked at some different franchises and he said you know, I just think I'll stick with my wine company. And I said, ok, well, you know what we could try looking at some different things. And next day he calls me up and goes I got it. I know what I want. I want a franchise that deals with mental health issues of addiction issues, and you know that's the kind of franchise I want. So we went out and found a one and he wound up signing with them three unit deal and his goal is that, once he gets these three up and running, is to put one of these in every NFL city.

Speaker 1: 33:55

That's out there Interesting and put his name behind it and do a little promotion, especially if you've got a brand, if your personal brand is already out there. That's something that you're passionate about. People love those stories. Athletes with these, you know passion projects that want to help the community. I mean that's a great story.

Speaker 3: 34:19

Yeah, and then we have one athlete. He is an ex-NBA basketball player. He does a lot of little businesses, involved heavily in a charity. He wound up getting a wedding dress company to where it's a franchise, to where they don't. Brides come in, they get fitted, they take the measurements and they then they ship it back. So you don't have a lot of inventory at the shop and the wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, are sent into the shop and you don't carry that overhead. And I mean they're doing a million dollars a year.

Speaker 1: 35:00

Wow, I could do one of those. We're in a wedding, I own a building and we're in a wedding district right here. I could probably uh, we could turn that upstairs into a little wedding dress place. We can do that, yeah, so that's, that's awesome. I mean, you know what I would suggest. I mean, maybe you're already doing this, but I'd love for you to go into some of these universities with these kids that are getting these NIL deals and have them take some of that NIL money instead of going out, buying a sports car with it or something silly, get injured or, you know, they don't end up in the NFL or whatever. Well, here you are, with, you know, two franchises out here. You know, doing exactly what you're saying, Some of these things that they you know might be passionate about already. Or, because you're an athlete, you know that that lends your skills and your experience to that business. I mean that that would be outstanding. You should come here to the university of Cincinnati and talk to some people around here.

Speaker 3: 35:55

Yeah, oh, heck, I would love to do that. It's kind of funny that you said that I actually was thinking about that and some, some players were talking about that, and I actually had someone from um university of, for Cal plays on the football team that approached me and says I have some money and you know, I kind of think I want to want to do a, do a franchise, and uh, so we're, uh, we're trying to help him get a find the right fit for himself.

Speaker 1: 36:21

I love it, man, wow, and I love your niche. Like you've gotten into this. You know you're you're doing franchises. You obviously know a lot about franchises. I mean it sounds like anybody could come to you. But this target going after these athletes I mean these could create some really good stories for you, because people wonder what you know guys are doing after you know they finished their careers. Like you know what's Pokey Reese doing right now? Is he? Is he got some franchises? Is he like that'd be a cool story, like let's follow up on this. Guy played for us for a bunch of years and now he's. You know he owns eight franchises thanks to you know Franchise Dream here. Those are really cool stories.

Speaker 3: 36:57

Absolutely. And the stories we don't want to hear is when you know you talk to someone who is drafted third overall in the NFL and you talk to them and they go you know I'm out of money. I mean I don't have any money and you're just your heart cares for them. That, uh, you know they had some people that made some bad investments for them and they are just um, you know they're, they're chasing any kind of money they can get. It's. It's very sad at times.

Speaker 1: 37:25

Yeah, that's. That's terrible, but you're doing it, man. And the URL for your website thefrandreamcom. Guys, you should definitely go check that out. James has a lot of really cool stuff out here and I'm serious, you need to come to Cincinnati. We got all these Xavier's here, uc's here, Northern Kentucky University, dayton I mean, there's so many colleges around here, an hour away from.

Speaker 2: 37:47

Kentucky.

Speaker 1: 37:48

Kentucky, an hour away from Kentucky, louisville's an hour and a half, ohio State's an hour and a half. I mean you got. This is like college central here and a lot of athletes. It's amazing. Yes, yes.

Speaker 3: 37:57

And I just love. Last time I was out there it was a while ago, but they were just redoing, redoing the football field and it was looking amazing, yeah, amazing yeah at the at the university of cincinnati.

Speaker 1: 38:09

So oh, they got a whole new sports complex. They got this practice facility going up. Now they got rid of their bubble and they're putting a big practice. The bangles don't even have one of those. The bangles got a bubble in the big 12 yeah, well, now we're in a big 12, we gotta step it up and they gotta be in the sec.

Speaker 2: 38:22

Well, I don't know if you know, this is the only way people care at it.

Speaker 1: 38:25

Yeah, cincinnati is the second city for the most professional athletes per capita they come out of here. St Louis is number one, cincinnati is number two and it's like there's a top.

Speaker 2: 38:35

It's a shame that girls sports aren't more popular because we have tons of girls. The number of Division I girl athletes in this area is stupid and then nobody gets any notoriety. The one girl, morgan H Henson. She just made the US Olympic. Well, she's in the player pool for the US Olympic volleyball team.

Speaker 1: 38:54

When some of the soccer players Well, she was an.

Speaker 2: 38:55

All-American three years. Three out of four years. She was a national champion and an All-American at Stanford as their libero, like that's outside of probably Sean Alexander and Dave Cowens, it's the best athletic career that I've heard of for an athlete runner. Nobody's ever said a word.

Speaker 1: 39:13

Well, barry Larkin, ken Griffey Jr. Yeah, pete Rose, yeah, dave Parker, yeah, roger Stalbuck.

Speaker 2: 39:20

I mean we've got a few. Those guys are in Cincinnati. I'm talking about my Kentucky people.

Speaker 1: 39:24

Yeah, your Kentucky people, that's true. I mean, when you think about it, I mean it's Cincinnati, dayton, columbus, youngstown, cleveland and Pittsburgh, like that whole strip right there, for whatever reason, crazy amount of athletes have come out of all those areas right there. So this would be a good place to kind of you know plant your hotbed.

Speaker 3: 39:45

Why don't you guys have a celebrity golf tournament?

Speaker 1: 39:47

Let's get all together and let's play.

Speaker 1: 39:50

Yeah, oh, there we go, I'll I'll be there I'll walk over the stadium right now and go knock on their door say, hey, mike brown, get out here, we got, we got an idea, but this is really good. I I think this honestly should be part of if a team brings somebody on or an agent like agents should be working directly with you guys. I mean to help kids out. Like you've got proven business models. Before you get in any crazy wild idea, you know, buy an ETF or buy an uh NFTs or something from your friend, like, what you need to do first is get yourself a couple of franchises. You just sign that rookie contract. Get yourself two or three franchises, stabilize yourself, get some good operators in there. You know, five, six years down the road I think the average NFL career is three years three years down the road. You're going to be lucky, you're going to be glad you had those.

Speaker 3: 40:39

Yeah, you're going to be walking into, walking into a salary and you're going to avoid corporate America.

Speaker 1: 40:44

That's right, nobody wants that.

Speaker 3: 40:47

Yeah, no one wants corporate America. Believe me.

Speaker 1: 40:49

Well, James, I really appreciate it. Thanks for being on the show again, guys. Um, tell them the website, any other ways that they can get ahold of you.

Speaker 3: 40:57

Uh thefrandreamcom James at thefrandreamcom uh email and uh, yeah, we'd just love to hear from everybody.

Speaker 1: 41:05

I love it, james. Well, good luck with everything. I love your niche. I think you're. You got so many opportunities right now and you know the players talk. Next thing, you know you're going to just. You're gonna be overwhelmed. You're going to need to franchise the friend dream, yeah exactly there you go.

Speaker 3: 41:20

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed my time with you guys today, appreciate you and appreciate all that you do.

Speaker 1: 41:26

Yes, sir, have a good one, Thank you. Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of Side Hustle City. Well, you've heard from our guests. Now let's hear from you. Join our community on Facebook, Side Hustle City. It's a group where people share ideas, share their inspirational stories and motivate each other to be successful and turn their side hustle into their main hustle. We'll see you there and we'll see you next week on the show. Thank you.