Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to American wealth in Franchising and Kim Daly tv. I am your host, Kim Daly. I want to educate, motivate and inspire your business ownership journey by interviewing business leaders, coaches and exceptional franchisees to learn their valuable insights and strategies that we can apply to our own business ownership dreams. Now onto the show.
Welcome back to Create wealth through Franchising podcast and Kim Daly tv. Our special guest today is a long time franchisee. He's going to tell us a great story that spans over 20 years. His name is Dan Morris. He lives in Orlando, Florida. He currently is a regional developer for one of my favorite brands, Pet Evolution. But that's not where Dan's story began. So, Dan, first of all, welcome to the studio of Kim Daly tv.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Big fan of yours. You know, I've been following you for many years on LinkedIn, so it's a real honor to be here.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, that's so nice. Thank you. I didn't know that. Thank you. I do actually remember you saying that now that when you emailed me. Well, let's go to the beginning of your story when you answered the call to franchising. What was happening in your life and what franchise did you first join?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: So first of all, way back when I got out of high school, I joined Pizza Hut. And, and it was a franchise. So I started as a dishwasher. And over the next 20 years I grew to be a franchisee for Pizza Hut in the Seattle Tacoma area where we had 64 stores. So there was six couples. We bought these stores. $25 million. I remember it's a big deal. I was low on the totem pole, but it was quite an adventure for seven years. And then another brand came calling about the development of this auto care franchise in Florida. So I bought the rights to most of that state and my wife at the time, her family had moved to Sarasota. So I bought into this item. I love cars, I love pizza, and I love pets. As you know, you gotta love what you get involved in, right? Because it becomes a passion and you want to do really good at it. And I've tried to do that in every brand I've joined. So that's my story. I mean, I've been here now in Florida since 2005 and I started looking at other opportunities because I just had more time on my hands as I built out the business, eventually worked my way out of the store and have a great automotive franchise. It's number one in the brand that does over 3 million a year. And I have a Great business partner that I've known for 40 years. And we just wanted to do something else. And we both love pets. We both have dogs and cats. And I brought him this brand of pet Evolution. And he's like, wow, this, you know, this looks pretty cool. Because I kind of told Jeff, I said, look, managing technicians in an automotive business is not much different than probably managing groomers. They all have their own unique skills and it's just about building the right culture. And I think, you know, we got him involved and got to meet Peter and went up to Minnesota and kind of fell in love with what they were doing with the Woodbury store and the brand, and the rest is history.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: It's so good. So if you missed it, he said, Honest One Auto Care. So how many Honest One Shops do you have under your region now?
[00:03:11] Speaker B: I have four. There's about 63, I think, in the company.
And I've been a part of that since October 2004. Took a little while for me to get going, you know, and really, if you didn't know, it's. It's a tough industry to sell. So it's capital intensive. The locations are very hard to find. But it's a very great business when you have a good team. And we really do. Of course, I had to put it, you know, one of those slowest growing areas of Central Washington. But today that's not the case. And I own the real estate and like I said, we just have a wonderful team there. And that's always what I wanted. So we had more time. I said, let's try something else kind of in the RD area and owning a store too as well. I think it was about two years ago that we signed our agreement, as you know, in development, our first site.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: So good. What do you love about franchising? I mean, you started out, you know, washing dishes in a Pizza Hut and here it's like literally changed the whole trajectory of your life. So at the core, Dan, what do you feel keeps you in the franchising industry?
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Well, first of all, I've always been kind of an independent thinker. Obviously, I worked my way up in the corporate world at first. Started in a franchising, then I went to the corporate office and worked my way up. And then I got the opportunity for the Seattle deal and then, you know, I wanted to do more and I wanted to build my own legacy. I took all those skills I learned over the many, many years at Pizza Hut and brought it to the Honest One brand.
I tell you, man, getting going from scratch Was not as hard for me. It was just finding the right location and the right people. But I can tell you, I love being on my own. I write my own schedule. I mean, I know everybody wants that, and I know it's not easy because I went through. I opened my first location in that brand in July of 2007, and that was the month that the real estate market crashed in Florida. So guess what happened in September of 2008.
That's when the stock market crashed. And I was like, boy, I really did it at the right time. So I really dug in, and I just had a lot of great customers. I mean, I automatically was up to almost 100 cars a week. Did a lot of marketing. I'm good at the marketing side and the operation side. And then when I brought Jeff, my business partner, things just changed overnight. And over the last 10 years, we've just quadrupled our sales, and we just have a wonderful team. And then I challenged Jeff. I said, look, you got to get yourself down to less than eight hours a week in that business.
So over the last year, we've been really working him out of it so we can spend almost 100% of our time on our. On our pet evolution business.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: So you sit here so humbly and say, we just have good customers. And I'm over here inside of me going, own it, Dan. Own it. Like, you have great customers because you're delivering a great experience. You're aligning. You're magnetizing those people to you. So if I asked you, Dan, what do you think your secret sauce is? Like, what do you bring to all these businesses you owned that has led to them all being successful? What is your core skill? Is it a human, like an HR kind of a skill? Is it an operational skill? What is it?
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Jeff and I both got into training department at Pizza Hut. We learned a great deal. They're really good on leadership. We kind of have this mentality of a leadership engine, and we look for people that are good at what they do, and that takes time. I understand that. But, you know, we're good at comp plans, so we really know how to motivate people on the money side of it. But also getting everybody connected to, if we satisfy customers, they just keep coming back. You know, when you start out in the business, you're like, man, you're so worried about your pricing. Not that I'm not today, but we're definitely the highest price. We're not the lowest. You know, we bring in about 30 new customers a week. They spend about $800 or more each customer, just so you can add that up. And we do that every week. And the only reason we do that is because we have great customer reviews. Right? We're very focused on five star reviews and just meeting the customer at the door, doing all the things that people don't normally do in the automotive business. Our place is buying very clean, very organized, very manicured, outside, inside. And our people are really focused on service. And I think that's the thing I bring is that I'm very hands on. Like right now I'm the board chair for our chamber here. So I'm in the community a lot. I can't tell you how many people don't do that, but I'm very involved in chamber. I've been in for 18 years. I wasn't as involved in my own this year all the time. But you know, I never gave up my membership and I shake a lot of hands until today. I know all the mayors and all the city planners and you know, just the people that bring a community alive. And you know, when you're working with government and business and the community, people get to know who you are. And I've always wanted to have a business where I could walk in the Publix, which is a grocery store chain here that I really love. And people didn't throw anything at me and they came up, shook my hand and you know, I just wanted a business I could be very proud of. And I think that's was important to me. I. There's nothing I won't do. It doesn't matter. I used to do all the mopping in the store for many years. I don't have to do that anymore. But I just like having a great business. It was a lot of pride to me and today it's really paying off.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: There's a lot of people out there that may think about business ownership, that think that the difference between success and failure is like big complicated things. And no matter how many times I may say it, a successful franchisee may say it like it's really the simple things, right. That are done consistently and consistently well that create that momentum. Right. And so it's not often like, oh, we're not following the system in big ways. It's small things that have the greatest impact. I love that. Okay, so we're in. Let's go to the present time because you're now part of pet evolution, which is an awesome opportunity. And I've certainly brought in several different regional developers for this awesome brand.
So what do you like about the regional developer opportunity versus just being a single or multi unit franchisee?
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Well, I've always meant, you know, work to be a good mentor. No matter where I work, I like helping people. I'm very good at the business planning side of things, like having a business plan. And I mean, I have seven years of budgets for my store and my territory. I always have that. I teach people like, you got to know what your breakeven is, the thing I always have done. And it doesn't matter what brand is. I try to find out who's really doing great. So I spent a lot of time on that Woodbury store. You know, it's been around the longest. And they do over 3 million a year. So I kind of ripped through their financials and also their schedules and just kind of studied it standing back and going, you know, I like how this store runs. I think I could get to this point where I, Jeff and I feel the same, but I think you should have a mentor. You should have someone that you're looking to, whether you know them or you watch them. Like, I have some mentors I watch on YouTube. I have an automotive place I watch that does a million a week, you know, and Jeff and I went there and watched that store. So, you know, we have goals for that business. We have goals for pet evolution. As a territory, though, I like helping people with those things. So, I mean, I try to give the advice that I believe in. And that is, you know, you need a mentor, you need somebody you can call. Jeff and I are very good at that side of the business.
So, you know, our franchisees, obviously, they always have the choice to take our advice. Right? And they do, but it doesn't mean they have to. So you're always trying to earn their respect and help them and say, hey, look, if you're not looking to the future, if your goal is to get the 3 million in sales, I mean, I'm always motivated. Because, you know, when you open a business, it doesn't automatically customers fly in your door. Almost every new franchisee, like, I just could open a door and boom. But it doesn't happen that way. It takes a little time, and sometimes it does. Sometimes you just have that perfect location and it just gets busy right away. But that doesn't happen every day. People have to know who you are because they do business with people they trust, people they like. And that's why I got involved in the chamber. And you're seeing the community, wanted to be a standout business in my city. And got to know the city officials and tried to be a great employer in any city. I was in the city has treated me very well.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: It's no wonder why you're so successful. I mean, you live by successful principles. So it's easy for me to listen and just know after just talking to you for 10 minutes. So, okay, so you like this RD. So for those who may be listening, if you're not familiar, regional developer, typically it's kind of an outdated model in franchising. There aren't too many franchisors that follow this model anymore. But the what it means is that somebody comes in like Dan, and they buy an area and then it's. He's going to be like a local franchisor in the Orlando area, helping to bring on those franchisees, getting their stores up and operating and then bringing all those franchisees together to build that brand awareness in a bigger way in a certain city or in a certain geographical area. And he's going to make a collect a portion of the royalty from each store. But most importantly, be their boots on the ground in the market with those franchisees working alongside of them. Instead of the franchisees having some corporate office up in Minneapolis that maybe knows nothing about the Orlando market, they get a local support staff and that's what he's talking about. So it is a nice model, especially if you are someone who enjoys leadership and mentorship in a business coaching capacity. Now, you also open your own store through Pet Evolution, correct? They require that.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: When you open your entire market, Dan, how many franchise locations will you have under you?
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Probably 16.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: 16 stores. Okay. And you hope that that's one owner who owns 15 and you own the 16.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: It's always nice when you get to that level, you know, but you're probably going to have a few onesies, a couple twosies, and then some people that really just blow it out of the water and the sky's the limit once you get to that person. Obviously I know a lot of them at, at different brands and you see that happen. You know, once they get a flavor for it and they know what they're doing, they. The nice thing I like about Pet Evolution is, you know, you can go from a 1400 square foot to a 3500 square foot location. That's totally up to you. So 1400 square feet is available pretty much anywhere. Right. Because this is a retail type of business. You know, we could be in a strip mall with the Publix or some other big anchor. It's not like automotive Automotive is much bigger. Probably it's 8,000 to 12,000 square feet. It's very expensive and intensive. And pet evolution is not that way. So it's a lot easier for someone to come in that maybe has no experience and I would push them to that maybe a little smaller, but it really depends. And we have such great real estate support and we know what we're looking for in a site. And I can tell you, I was amazed at how easy it was to like, we put an ad out for a manager for our location because we do manager through general managers. And when we got like 66 applications within a couple weeks.
And the same with our groomers. You know, we're trying to find groomers right now and we're doing the interviews and I think we've got about 14 applications and out of that, I think half of them really were pretty, really good.
So Jeff does that side of the business and he's working through LinkedIn and Facebook and creating a buzz and he's out in the community doing different booths at different events before we open, which will probably be the first week in November or December. It really depends on construction.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Hey, Daily Coach fans, if you're ready to begin your own journey to find the perfect franchise, please email me right now at Inquire Kimdaly tv. My services are totally free for you. That's inquireimdaily tv.
Now back to the show.
I want to talk about two things. The role that you play managing the manager and the role that you play out in the community. But I want to go back to what you said about when you find the people that really get it and want to open three, four stores. Because this is a really important point. I have a lot of followers out there that have that empire building mentality who in a young brand like this may trip over the lack of data that there really is to sort of understand the model. So, and you mentioned when you were studying it that you studied that Woodbury store, which is in Woodbury, Minnesota, which is where they're corporately headquartered. So just while we have this and you have this vast knowledge behind you, having run so many different types of franchises and multiple units, what do you think really helps that candidate move from I want to be an empire builder, but right now I only have like enough data to invest in the single. What is it that they should be focused on in their mindset to help drive them from that fearful place of I'm only going to go in one. Even though I really want more to really buying into a bigger vision. Do you have any advice to offer?
[00:15:43] Speaker B: One of the great things about being an RD and Liftnet Evolution is that they have a wonderful support team above in the home office. Right. I mean they really are well financed and so they have lots of key people that help you from how to open the store, how to order everything. I mean I, they also have a project manager for the store. So I would have to manage the construction side of it. I hire that person and that just continues throughout the process. But when an RD has their own store and you know, like I like to own more stores too, right. So I am same mentality. So I'm looking for people that like, you know, once you understand how to do this, you can replicate it real easily. You'll get to know how to hire people. I love to find people that have been had multiple experience in running maybe four or five restaurants or more in their career or a whole market. If I can find those people, they get it, they understand that they can't run those stores themselves. Those kind of people. Multiple store leadership has always been a key to mine. And then people that really just like people gotta like people. You gotta love dogs and cats. You just can't get in this business. They won't even let you in. You don't love dogs and cats and our business is 95% of dogs. So I can just tell you, anytime I bring up pet evolution or I wear my shirt here, I'm out in the public and they go, what's pet evolution? I tell them what it is and they, they can't stop talking about their dog, you know, or their cat or they'll show me pictures on their phone right away and I'll show them mine. And it's instant connection. So I mean I've never seen that before. You don't get that in auto care, right? People like, oh man, get away from me, you know. Right. You see, I know same thing for me. And you wouldn't believe how many pet grooming schools are. I just had no idea that they were everywhere. Just like hairstylists, there's, there's pet grooming. So there's lots of people out there, but you gotta find the right ones and they gotta want to work for you. If you can take care of people usually I found that they take care of you and you just create that culture that people want to be at. It's just much as important as income. And we like to see people do well, right? We want em to do well. And we realized that we've Got to invest in the business. So as we grow the business in sales, we got to add more groomers. We got to do this. You got to keep from one shift to two shifts to three shifts. You just keep investing. And to get to that point where you're making the money you want to make and then you take that cash, right? Which is, say it's half a million dollars profit or whatever, you're going to reinvest that in the next business. And when you have a good bottom line, the banks are right there. You know, I have a relationship with a local bank. That was an advice given me by the CEO of Honest One. It said, hey, you know, Dan, get to know a bank and build a relationship with them and they get to know you. And you know, they love our P and L, right. And they see what we could do with this one, so they've invested in us. It makes things a lot easier when you have friends in all different areas. I can just tell you I'm excited about it. I mean, I'm already looking at the second where I want to put the second location. And then when we're looking at locations in Orlando so that when we find a franchisee that's interested, I can kind of say drive by this location. I like them to be close to their house, right? If they live somewhere, I like to see if they can be close because then it's easier to be in that chamber. It's not such a drive, but sometimes a location is such a great deal, they might drive 20 miles or 30 miles to get to that every day. But you're going to hire great people. I like to see people be hands on, but I don't really want to see the franchisee be the main. I really want to see them hire somebody with industry experience. And they're everywhere. I mean, we got many of them applying, and guess what? They want opportunity to grow. So you're going to find some assistant manager at some of the big box stores. You're going to find people that were groomers at one time, but now they want to manage. So it's just a matter of us taking them through the pedal to training and getting to what they want, getting them to the amount of money that they want to make, and then trying to get them to make a lot more than that. If they make a lot more than that and you win.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: I asked you the question about, like, you know, how do you get that person motivated from, you know, a single to double or thinking bigger? And he went right to the perfect answer. He basically went to who, not what. His answer related back to the support that Pet Evolution offers the people that you're partnered with at Pet Evolution. So that was beautiful. So the second part of my question, if you recall, was, okay, let's focus in on what you do. If you're managing the manager and he's already talking about it, and what is he talking about?
Who, not what. So when you work with Kim Daly and you come to me thinking, well, I want to own this particular type of business now, Dan said up front, you got to be in an industry you love because it's going to be a passion. And I agree with that. But ultimately, we're not buying a hobby or a passion. We're buying a partnership. So the most important factor to your success in a franchise is that you align to the culture of people that are about to be called your franchisor partners. So. So it's always about who. And then I'm going to toss the mic back to Dan. And then when you think, well, what's the difference between success and failure in a business, in a franchise, what has this man sat here and talked about for the last 20 minutes? The people he was bragging on. He has good customers. Seriously, he has a good experience. Why he and his partner are working less than eight hours in their store because they have good people. How do they have good people? He already told you because he loves people. This whole interview has really been about people, and we weren't even talking about people. So it's so beautiful. So I want to toss it back to you one more time. And just when you're thinking about that, the success of your store, I know there's people out there who are probably like, why would you invest in a retail store when you know people could buy their pet food on chewy? We're not here to debate the pros and cons of a Pet Evolution store. That's not the point of create wealth through franchising. We're here to talk about how wealth is created in franchising. And certainly, if you are excited about this model, come to me, because I will help you. But most importantly, I will lead you back to the franchisor who will really give you the specific information about how they compete. A little hint Dan already gave you is that it's a local connection. People want to do business with people they know like and trust, but there's a little more to it than that. So, Dan, so back to you. Just to kind of tie this together and bring it home so you Want to be the CEO and you like your franchisees to be managing the managers, not the manager themselves. Let's start with why fundamentally do you think that that is important? And then the second question will be, what role do they play?
[00:22:00] Speaker B: You know, when I go back to that, I, I really think about one of my mentors. David Novak was the CEO of Young Brands for many years and he wrote a book about yum brands. So he had a book called Taking people with you. Right. So his whole thing was about people and recognition. And one of the things I got out of him too was just this whole thing about having a balanced scorecard and key performance indicators for every position. And people, they know how to do their role right, and they know when they're on target, above target or below target. So Jeff and I are pretty good at coming up with what we want every year. And we try not to tweak it too much. We try to make sure people are growing and we look for them to make outrageous money. That's our goal down the road. So that's really important. I think one of the things I would do is I teach people, said, look, put an ad out there for $150,000 salary and see what kind of people apply. It's a test that I do with franchisees and say they're out there, you know, and then you think about it. Maybe the pet evolution manager starts at 60 or 80 depending. But you want them to get into that six figure role. Guess how they get into six figures? The business keeps growing and that you do less and less and they do more and more. And then maybe that person down the road becomes a equity partner for you. Right? That allows you to go do another store and then they become a partner at that other store and you grow this teamwork of operators and they all have a vested interest in what you do now. You don't have to do that. I don't do it really quickly. I try to find people that really fit the mold that Jeff and I look for. And that is someone that's like us and that really cares about what they do and they take seriously their development. And I mean, the sky's the limit. It really is. I think that's the key, is that you get so burnt out if you just do that in store all the time. If you're not out doing things, if you're not, you're not getting to your seven year plan or whatever it may be. That's why I do that. I say franchisees, got to see, look, getting to 90,000amonth maybe in sales that might be break even. And they're like, man, that's a lot of money. You know, how come I'm only breaking even? I said, because you're reinvesting. You're hiring more groomers, you're hiring more wellness associates. You're doing these things. But you've got to see where you want to be in three years from now when you're doing two and a half million or whatever it might be for your location, depending on your size. But once you get people to see that, then they go, okay. It's like going to college all over again. Takes about four or five years to really get running if you're really serious. And sometimes you can do it much quicker. I mean, I got to break even at about eight months at my automotive place and I'm hoping to do it in about half that time at Pet Evolution. But that's up to me and Jeff and the team. We've got to be really thinking about the marketing and the people we hire and the culture we create and the experience that the customer gets. Because I know they can buy their food online, right? And there's lots of choices out there. But what we want to be is the best in our trade area. And if we can do that, I think people will come because of the experience.
When I went up to Minnesota, the one thing I wanted to see was people meeting me at the door, asking what my dog's name was, remembering who I was, and that I got that same kind of service every single time. I mean, that's why I don't see in this industry. And I wish I saw that in other places. But it's encouraging to me as a, a Pet Evolution RD and franchise location owner, that I can create that. I know I can because we've done it before in our other brands.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: I love it. It's such a pleasure to meet you, Dan. I am so happy and I'm grateful that you share all of your success. And two things are so evident from this, maybe three. One, that success in a business is not. We already said it. It's not based on complicated things. It's simple things that are just so simple they're overlooked, I think. Two, that business ownership is about people. You want to be a successful multi unit franchise, successful in any kind of size business. It's about serving people well and treating your people well. And the third thing is that business ownership in franchising at its core is always about who, not what. It's about finding that key partner and having a mentor. This man is a mentor. He's been mentored. He's now being a mentor to his franchisees. That's why he wants to be an rd. And this is what you get when you're a franchisee. So if you're out there on the sideline and you're nervous to get in the game because you feel like, am I really going to be well supported? I challenge you to follow the link in the description right now, because I want to introduce you to some amazing franchisors who have RDs like this, who have other franchisees who want to be there to help you. Because when all franchisees are rowing the boat in the same direction at the same speed and the entire brand is gaining momentum and everybody wins, we're all shareholders building that same brand. And when the brand equity builds, that means higher exit strategy values. And let's be real, every business is built to be sold, in Kim Daly's opinion. Dan Morris, thank you so much again for sharing your wisdom. Congratulations on all of your success and we wish you and all of the amazing RDs at Pet Evolution much success in lifting this new emerging brand.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Thank you very much, Kim.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: It's a pleasure to meet you. And for those who are ready, I've already done my call to action, but I'm not ashamed to do it again. Follow the link in the description right now, because you know that my name is Kim Daly and I want to be your franchise consultant and your daily coach.
You can find more content just, just like this on my YouTube channel at KimDaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises matched to you, please email me right now at InquireimDaily TV. That's InquireimDaily TV.
