Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to create wealth through franchising podcast and Kim Daily TV. I am your host, Kim Daley. I want to educate, motivate, and inspire your business ownership journey by interviewing CEO's leaders, sales, 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 Daily TV. Our special guest in studio today, he's an amazing guy with an amazing story. His name is Bill Tullis, and he is here representing home franchise concepts as an internal business coach. Bill, welcome to the studio of Kim Daley TV.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Kim, it's an honor to be here.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: This is gonna be so good. Okay, for those of you who follow me, you know that I'm on this mission this year to bring you all kinds of advice on how to not just say yes to your dream to own a franchise, but how to show up for that dream every single day and live the best life you can as a franchisee. So Bill has a very interesting story he's gonna share with you about his own transition from corporate America to franchising, to now being the coach to the franchisees. So, Bill, introduce my followers to your story, your backstory, your why and how you ended up being the coach to the franchisees.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Thanks, Kim. I'd be happy to. So, real quick, I spent 30 years in consumer packaged goods sales and marketing. And as happens, life happened and we found ourselves living on the west coast, and then we're faced with the real situation of elder care, my parents back here, where I currently live, on the east coast. So we made a decision to come back home and start a new chapter in our lives. And it was in that moment that I decided that I could take the skill sets that I had gleaned from my prior life and start my own business. And so I started looking for business opportunities, and one of my passions was home organization. And I found home franchise concepts, and I found two brands that I was totally stoked about. And we launched a franchise here, where I live today in suburban Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, about five years of doing that, the corporate team asked me to come join them and be a business coach for our franchisees. And I was delighted to say yes to that. And that's what I do today. I'm a franchise business coach for two amazing concepts of within home franchise concepts.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Do you still run your franchise, or did you sell your business? Nope, we sold it because you're a full time guy. Those franchisees need you, Bill. That's right.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: And this is a full time job.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: I love it. What happens is you're so successful and the franchisor knows we need this guy internally, and then you end up back working for somebody else instead of for yourself. But you can help so many people. I love it. All right, so let's get to the topic at hand. I am so excited to have you here to really talk about how do we say yes every single day to this business ownership journey that sometimes doesn't go as easy as we want or as we hoped or planned. So let's get into the conversation like, you're working internally with franchisees. So you see a lot of people, and you've heard a lot of stories in five years. I'm quite sure of that. So what do you see people generally, your franchisees generally doing? Right. Like, they graduate from training and like, what do they do that's really, really good? Let's start there.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: You know, if there's one thing that our most successful franchisees do, they follow the model.
It's kind of that simple, right? So one of the reasons why you bought a franchise would be that you're passionate about that concept, that vertical you're going to be working in. So find something that you're passionate about because you're going to spend a lot of time in it. The reason why you buy a franchise is because there's a model, right? You don't have to recreate the wheel. And so our most successful franchisees are following the model that we've created for them.
And I would encourage every franchise, potential franchisee out there that's thinking about buying a franchise to take advantage of the model that the franchisor has built for you. Now, there's a lot underneath of that. But when you think about all the things that you do as a franchisee, if you stay true to that model, you'll be most successful.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: It's good advice. It's easier said than done because I think the listener is like, well, what do you mean? Of course I'm going to follow the model, Bill. Right? Because I used to think that, too, before I sat over here and I'm like, okay, so you say there's a lot underneath that. Like, let's just dive into a little bit of that. Because the number one thing that I see that can sometimes go wrong is, you know, fear, which every single new business owner has. I mean, look, every single person has, right? We all have our own anxieties about, you know, can we do this? Did I make the right decision? And when people first say yes.
They've overcome this fear. They're so excited, they're full of hope. But behind everything they're doing, they're driven a little bit by the fear of failure. So what I see sometimes happen is they say yes, but then they go into training and especially if they have some familiarity with what they're doing, they tend to want to like, do it. Yeah, but, yeah, but like they, it's almost like I tell people you gotta check your ego at the door and kind of humble yourself to learn and be open. Like, that's what I see. But you unpack kind of what you just said. What do you mean?
[00:05:55] Speaker B: And that's it really, it is.
Make sure that you're staying true to what other franchisees before you have proven to be successful. And a lot of times you do sort of bring your own biases into the equation. And you have to recognize that this has been done before by other folks who are doing it really, really well. And they're your best guide. The first thing that I would tell you to do, write a business plan. So part of the model is writing a business plan. And I would encourage everybody as they think about writing that business plan to start with the end in mind.
Imagine you've signed a multi year contract with a franchisor. Let's say it's ten years. Where do you want to be at the end of that? Like, what is your exit strategy? So we encourage our franchisees on day one to actually think about your exit strategy. What does that look like? And now write a business plan that achieves that. Right. And so what I often find is a lot of people sort of give that short shrift and they don't actually do a business plan, and that's a yellow flag, right? And so we want to bring them back to home and say, what is your first year plan going to be? And make sure that you're executing against that plan and you're using all the tools and resources that the franchisor is providing. You check that plan often. Don't be afraid to check your actuals versus your plan. And if you're off plan, then make course corrections. But that's the first thing you have to do, right? So you've got to sort of get down to brass tacks and say, what is my plan going to look like? And write a plan with the end in mind, right? So if my goal is that I want to be exiting this because I've achieved all this wealth and be able to sell this business for what? What's that number. And what does the business need to be at to get to that number and begin executing against that? That's your passion. That's your vision. That's what you want to achieve ultimately in owning a small business.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Hey, daily Coach fans, if you're loving this episode, please do me a quick favor and leave me a five star rating and a short review. Your feedback fuels my growth and rankings and shows others that this podcast is valuable. Now back to the show.
Do you find that most people struggle to really know what they want through this?
[00:08:13] Speaker B: And that's why we're here, right. So we ask a lot of questions of our new owners because a lot of people haven't thought about it that way. So just asking that question begins to sort of peel the onion on that. Well, what do you mean exactly by that? Well, what is your goal? Where would you like to be at in five years and ten years? Because this business is a means to an end for you. And so all of a sudden, they think about, yeah, right. So this is why I'm doing this, right? I want to achieve financial independence and wealth. And that's why you buy a franchise, because you get more than just the model. You get all the people behind it who have done this before you. Then we can bring those resources to bear with you. So that'd be the second thing that I would say.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: So first is write the business plan. The second thing is take advantage. Take full advantage of the resources that the franchisor provides you. Right. Whether that's tools and systems and platforms or people. Right. So we bring business coaches to the table, fully leverage your business coach. There may be local area marketing resources. Right. You're probably not a marketing expert. That's okay. We have folks who are. So make sure that you're leveraging those resources along the way.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: It's so good. For those of you who follow me consistently, this is sounding a lot like videos Kim Daley has on Kim Daley TV, where we talk about reverse engineering from the outcome and working it all the way back to your get ready for it, Bill, your daily plan, right. So that every single day, you know exactly how you have to execute in order to always be on par, on track to where you want to end up. Because it's very easy to let a week turn into a month of just sort of like, being busy but not being productive and then waking up three months or six months in and being like, oh, my gosh, like, my business is so off, you know, as if, like, we're a victim of our circumstance because we haven't fully owned the creator role that we have. And so you're calling people to think, think all the way to the end of it, which I love, and then bringing it back and you're there as the coach to help set them up and help them like guide their thoughts to what is possible. But those listening, you got a dream as big as you can because you can create anything you want in this playground called a business own, called a business. Right. So, I mean, Bill works for a company that's a massive parent organization and not every franchisor out there has the depth of resources of a home franchise concept. But for those that that is important for, you know, home franchise concepts has multiple brands underneath that parent umbrella. So do you specifically coach on the brand that you represented, which is tailored closet and premier garage?
[00:10:59] Speaker B: I do. Those are the two concepts that I work on.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Okay. And does home franchise concepts have coaches for budget blinds and all the other brands that are under there?
Cool. Okay, awesome.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: I didn't even know that when it comes to business coaches, that leads to the third thing, Kim, which is it's this simple, be coachable.
Right. So as a franchisee with all these resources that we're helping you with and bringing to bear, make sure that your mind is open and your ears are open for the coaching that's going to come. Right. Again, it's a benefit that the franchisor is providing. You just have your mind open and be receptive to coaching. Right. Feedback is a gift and your business coach is going to give you feedback and help guide you. Be open to that. Be coachable.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: The world is set up in your favor if you're open to it, right. And again, I think when people aren't, we're not picking on anybody, listening. When, if you're not, it's just normally it's fear. It's just sort of like looking in the mirror. That's what I find. Fear or ego. But I, the ego really kind of, I think is hidden behind the fear that everybody has, every single business owner has. Look, I've been a business owner for 26 years, right, for 22 years here at franchise. And, you know, even though I've, you know, mass made history and broken history again and again and again, I still face moments of fear and anxiety in my business. Believe it or not. Right. I still hit slumps. Things still slow down for Kim Daley and I have to look in the mirror and go, okay, what am I not doing that I used to do? Because I need to create some activity right? Like, it happens. It's life. It's the joys of being a business owner. Okay, so anything else on this little list of yours? Cause I like it so far.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: So the fourth thing is, don't be afraid to benchmark your performance off of other franchisees performance, because sometimes you'll get in your own lane, right? So you've got your business plan, and you only know that to be your truth, right? But I think it's worthy of stepping back and saying, well, here's how I'm performing.
Am I doing as good as I could be? And how would I know? Oh, it's that last question that I think is intriguing. Right? How would you know? And so some franchisors, we're one of them, actually provide a tool that enables franchisees to see their financial performance benchmark against an aggregate set of other franchisees, never a one on one comparison. We would never do that. But it's that aha. Moment where an individual franchisee says, oh, so I see this subset of franchisees is actually performing better, or whatever that financial measurement is. And then it opens up the door to questions, well, what are they doing differently that I maybe take that best practice and employ it here in my franchise? Because at the end of the day, we want everybody to be profitable, right? And we want people to look for those opportunities where they can improve their financial performance by benchmarking off of other folks in the same network. I think that's really powerful.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: It's really powerful. The first newsletter that I wrote for 2024 was on finding an accountability group, right? Whether it's at the gym or in your business. And in franchising, we have these natural accountability groups because the other franchisees around you, they understand your business. They understand what, you know, your struggles, because they're in it, too. And this isn't a gripe group, right? That's the very fine line. This is an accountability group where, like, I, if I'm going to show up every week before my peers and I said I was gonna, you know, make, make 15 appointments this week and set 15 appointments and go on 15 appointments, I don't wanna let those people down. So I'm gonna hold myself accountable to what I said I was gonna do. And that just makes us all a little more honest in our business. I love that at franchise, we are huge on accountability groups. And so, you know, our CEO is like the best at being like, oh, really, Kim? Cause if I call him like, oh, the economy or this is bothering me, you know, my business is way off as if I'm a victim to something I've learned. I don't even call him anymore because I've done this long enough to know he's just going to be like, oh, really, Kim? Because I could probably give you five other consultants that you could call today who are not experiencing that reality. And you're like, oh, tough love stinks.
But you put on your big girl pantry and you're like, okay, suck it up. Figure out what's wrong. So do you have accountability groups within your franchise? Do you encourage that or does that make you a little nervous? Do franchisees tend to get together and then it just becomes that kind of gripe session where it's not productive?
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it has to be done well, right? So, yes, we do.
Sometimes you do have to remind folks that we're looking for forward movement. If there are issues going on in the business, we'll solve those, but we really want to take it beyond that. So where are those opportunities? What we like to say is there's no better partner within franchising than your fellow franchisees. Right. So you have to be smart and sort of weed out some of the noise to get to the really good kernels of truth. And so we do pair up franchisees with each other. We do encourage that.
I think that is part of, and that was the fifth thing I was going to say, which is leverage the network. Right. You're not alone. Right. And one thing I say to our new franchisees is you're, to be clear, you're not alone. You're never alone. You have us. You have the franchise business coaches to help you, but you also have your fellow franchisees. And everybody in the network remembers when they were brand new. Right. And everybody in the network wants to help people get through that period. And so leverage the network that the organization offers to you. Totally leverage that network.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Okay, let's see if Kim Daley can remember. So the first thing is we're going to begin with the end in mind. So we're going to create a business plan, break that down into our goals. The second thing was. What was the second thing, Bill?
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Leverage the resources, provided all the tools.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Make sure you're. And then be coachable was number three, right?
[00:16:54] Speaker B: And then be coachable.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Benchmark your performance with accountability.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Benchmark your performance against how other people are doing. And then leverage your network.
What about the importance of attending your conferences? I know you guys have massive conferences, like, do you, do you, do people push back on that because they don't understand the true value of what's there for them or does everybody just know we got to be there?
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Fortunately, the vast majority of people recognize the value of those conferences. And it's funny. That's also on my list of things. It was at the very bottom. Yeah, that's part of leveraging the network. Go to those conferences. Sign up for all the webinars.
There's no better opportunity for franchisees to network with each other than at the annual conference. When we bring everybody together and we survey our franchisees and we ask them, because we bring a lot to the table in those meetings, but they start ranking like what was the best thing? And time and time again, year after year. The number one reason why people come is because of the networking with their fellow franchisees.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: It is so fun.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: And by the way, those tend to be our most successful franchisees, right? So the ones that don't take advantage of those things kind of goes back to what I was saying in this whole podcast. You got to leverage those resources. There are opportunities. They're right in front of you. You just have to say yes. Totally have an open mind.
[00:18:09] 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 increased inquireimdaily tv. My services are totally free for you. That's inquireimdaily tv. Now back to the show.
Before I was like a top performing consultant. I would go to convention and I would just lean in and listen to the people who were ahead of me and just, and sometimes I wasn't even smart enough to understand what they were saying. But I knew by the way they were saying it that it was important. And I would write it down and I would go home and I would think about what they said and I'd try to like. And then, you know, something would happen in my business and I'd be like, oh, that's what he meant, you know, and then, and I would little by little, it's like I tell people it's one or two golden nuggets at a convention that you take back and you implement into your business. And then it's not about like learning everything at one time, but it's incremental growth, right? That's how anything in life is done successfully, right? Like how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? How do you build a business, master a business one skill at a time? Right? In the beginning, you have to focus on everything to kind of get it out of the gate. But then I think if you're smart, you get laser focused on different parts of your business and really learning to become the master at that part. Check it off the list and move on to the next part. Right. And or leverage yourself with a team of people who can help you to achieve that. But I love that. So you. I love this list. Is there anything else on your list?
[00:19:48] Speaker B: I think those are the headlines on the list. And like I said at the beginning, this sort of all falls under the follow the model.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Follow the model.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: That is the key nugget today. Make sure you're following the model.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: It's so simple, and yet it's so complicated. Like most things in life, right? Simple and easy, never the same thing. So before we wrap this up, let's just spend a little bit of time talking about when it goes off the rails. So, you know, I come into the business, I have super high hopes. I got out of the gate. What do you see as one or two big contributing factors to people not getting the success that they hoped or wanted?
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's always a metric, right? So if you begin to sort of peel the onion on somebody's performance, business performance, you can begin to see where they might be going off the rails. So, for example, one of our KPI's is your sales closing rate. So we do a whole module in new owner academy on how to sell. It's kind of one of my areas of expertise. And you need to have a certain closing rate. So your business plan is going to be built on a set of assumptions. Any business plan at its core is simply that it's just a set of assumptions. Are they roughly right, which is what we want, or are they way wrong? While we want them to be roughly right, we'll help you get them roughly right. But then it's that inspection we talked about earlier in the podcast, right? So if you assume to your business plan you're going to have, I'll make it up a 60% closing rate, and it turns out you're only at 50%. Well, that ten point Delta is going to have an impact on your business. So we say, what can we do to help train you up in sales? Right? So we'll bring it back to training. We'll do whatever we need to do to help improve your closing rate. So that's an example of there are like lots of KPI's, but that's why you do the business plan, right? So you can go back. Because if it's going off the rails, there's somewhere it's going off the rails. We need to figure out where that is, and we'll help you. And by the way, that's true in business. Basically, it's not just franchising. Every business does this, right? I joke when a new owner pushes a business plan across the table to me, I say this to them, there's one thing I know about your business plan, Kim. And Kim goes, what? I go, it's exactly wrong, because who's that good? Nobody's that good. So we know what's going to be exactly wrong, but that's not the point. We want it roughly right. And if it's right, going off the rails, we'll figure out where you're going off, and we'll come in and we'll talk about how you can improve to get back on plan.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: It's really, really good. When I first, you know, made history in my business, and we never talked about KPI's until then, so I was capturing all this data, and then I had to study that data because, believe it or not, making history. The second year was harder than the first year, mostly because my ego was involved, because now the world knew what I did, and I was like, can I. I don't want to be a one hit wonder. Can I do it again? And so, like, the second year, there was a lot more pressure on me, and so I really had to peel back that onion and look at all these numbers. And what Bill is saying is so true, because when I looked at my closing ratios back then, I was like one out of eight, which is ridiculous. If I wanted to place two people a month into a franchise, I had to serve 16 people up at Discovery day. Like, that's a whole lot of work, right? So thank goodness. But that's what I mean. Oh, thank goodness I got better at it. But that's what I mean by mastering the art of what you do, like, little by little. So that was not a replicatable scenario that I created the first year, but it's totally replicatable now, 13 years later, because I went in and I started really studying, first off, my closing ratios, because that's how we work smarter rather than harder. Right. So how do I improve what I'm doing so I can find prospects for better people, identify who the real people I should be spending time with are faster. Right. Help the people who are going to say no, say no faster. All of these things are good.
It's a sales process, right. And so it's just understanding that, which I think takes people who, especially who've never sold anything in their lifetime to grasp. It doesn't make it right or wrong. It's just a process that you have to learn and grow from. And so when we over here go, when people ask me, well, am I going to be successful? And I throw it back at you and I say, I don't know, are you? Because I don't know how willing you are to go through these learning curves that every single business owner has to go through. Maybe you're a sales master, but you stink at, you know, like, managing teams of people and inspiring your team. Or maybe you've got that down, but you're not organized, and so your operation isn't as efficient as it could be. There's always things to learn, which is what makes business ownership so fun. Is there anything else in terms of, like, when it starts to go off the rails that you would really point out?
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's funny because I think a hallmark of the most successful small business owners is mindset.
And underneath of that, grit. Right. Because they're going to be rainy days. The question is, are you able to get through those rainy days? And to me, that goes back to your mindset and this thing we call grit. And in those moments, are you able to power through it? And I think that's important because they're going to be tough days ahead. Small business ownership is fun, but it can be hard, and you're going to have challenges that come your way. And the question is, like, how do you deal with those challenges? And what we find is those that have a great mindset. They remember why they started the business in the first place. It's their passion. Right? And they remind themselves of that, and then they go, you know what? I got grit and determination, and I can get through this. And they do.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: And what's awesome is you have a network of people that you can leverage who've probably been in that same place before, especially in a system home franchise concepts, where there's depth to their validation because they have so many owners at all different stages, you can really lean in and find that to be, in some cases, like the difference between kind of staying in your fetal position or mentally getting back the hope and inspiration. Like, okay, if these people did it, I can do it. I love what you said, bill. I promise you listeners out there, I did not tell him that I'm the mindset coach. Right. But I'm over here preaching this all the time, that success. Success in your business is 20% strategy and 80% mindset. How you think, how you talk and how you act so I love that. What a great way to conclude this awesome interview. And what's so fun for me is it's just validation. With every single business coach that I brought on so far this year and the episodes we've released, the theme is consistent, right? We're not. We're not. We're all saying the same thing. Success in the business comes down to a few simple principles. It's not rocket science. And yet it is, right?
It's not like the hardest thing you're ever going to do, and yet it is the hardest thing in some cases, you're ever going to do. It's such a conundrum in so many ways. It's simple, but it's not easy. And when you say, like, oh, it's hard. And you're right, like, some days are hard, but I always want to go back when people hear that, I don't want you to be like, oh, I better not do it because it's hard. Well, pick your hard, right? Because I think getting up and going to work for somebody else's dream is harder than the hardest day I've ever had being employed for myself. Right? Working for my own dream. Would you say the same thing, Bill?
[00:27:10] Speaker B: I would say the same thing, Kim.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Love it. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for being our special guest here today on Kim Daily TV.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: It was my honor. Kim, thank you so much for having me.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Such a pleasure to meet you. I love home franchise concepts. For those who are motivated by this episode to begin your journey to find the perfect franchise, you know that I want to be your daily coach. Please follow the email on the screen right now or reach directly out to inquireimdaily TV. That's inquireimdaily TV. And until next time, my name is Kim Daley and I want to be your daily coach.
You can find more content 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 enquireimDaily TV. That's enquiremdaily TV.
