In this episode of the Franchise My Business podcast, Kevin features Dr. Ben Litalien, Founder, and Principal of FranchiseWell, a world-renowned franchise expert, educator, and speaker with expertise both as a franchisor and franchisee, and a supplier to the franchise industry.
Today, Dr. Ben shares his valuable insights on the mindset behind a successful franchisor and golden anecdotes on his own trial by fire in franchising. He talks about starting his consulting practice and teaching the business model in Georgetown. Ben also shares that the versatility of the franchise model and the nuances that actually make it complex are what attracted him the most to it.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Choose your first franchisees very well – Ben: “First lesson, your early franchisees are the most critical. Choose the wrong ones, and your chances of success go way down. Choose the right ones, and your ability to scale quickly goes way up because they are your defacto advisors. They’re living it every day, and you have to learn fast.”
The value of a franchise can grow exponentially – Ben: “Lesson number two, the value of a franchise system is far greater than most business people or entrepreneurs understand. I mean, it is not uncommon to get an 8, 9, 10, or 12 multiple on a franchise business. And think about it, you’re the franchisor, you might have one location that you’re operating out of, but you got a hundred franchisees and you’re taking all that revenue with very low overhead, and then someday somebody’s gonna wanna buy that network from you and they’re highly valued.”
Learn to think as a franchiser, not as an operator of the underlying business – Ben: “Metanoia is I thought this way, now I think this way. And if you wanna be successful in scaling your business, and more specifically your brand, into a powerhouse, you’ve got to have metanoia. You have got to understand and think like a franchise, not like the underlying business. That’s what your franchisees do every day.”
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