How I Built a $2.2M Franchise in 3 Years | Kori Farr with Handyman Connections

This is the complete transcript from Episode #5 of The Franchise Champion Show, where host Alan Regala interviews Kori Farr, a Handyman Connections franchise owner who went from Rookie of the Year to Franchisee of the Year to top performer in his system - all within three years. Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform.

Alan: Welcome to the Franchise Champion show. I'm your host, Alan Regala, CEO and founder of Athlete to Owner Franchise Coaching. I was a D1 athlete and used the principles of high performance training to build and sell a multi-million dollar franchise business.

Now I want to help others do the same. So let's go! I am excited to introduce our next guest, Kori Farr of Handyman Connections. Kori was rookie of the year after his first year, franchisee of the year after his second year and is currently the top performer in his system. Welcome to the franchise champion show, Kori.

Kori: Thank you Alan.

Alan: By the way, obviously you're in motion. You're in your car. This is probably how you end up doing so well is that you're always on top of things and being efficient with your time. So, thank you for taking that time.

Kori: Well, you know, Ricky Bobby taught me if you ain't first, you're last. So I don't like to be, I don't like to be second place, because that just means I'm the first loser.

Alan: All right, all right. That's a good mindset, I like it. So before we dive into what you do now, tell us what you were doing before and how you got into franchising.

Kori: So a little bit of a backstory about what I did before is I have now been in the home remodeling industry for roughly about 20 years. I started out with a company, I was a tile distributor in Louisville, Kentucky that's been around for 70 plus years, as well as a granite fabricator that we sold quartz countertops, and we worked with builders and other commercial jobs.

Basically, how I got involved into the franchising world was I had what we like to call in our industry - I had a hunter reach out to me. This was pre-COVID, reach out to me and want to know if I was interested in doing something different while I was in the course of finishing up my MBA. So, you know, and that's a whole other story - I chose when I was 28 years old to go back to school to finish up my undergrad, and then which led into my MBA.

So, you know, that's something that I'm very proud of. But when they reached out to me, he asked me if I was interested in doing something different. Obviously, you know, I was content. I was making good money where I was that I didn't need to do anything different. But being content wasn't getting me anywhere in life.

But I tabled it because I was in the middle of building a new house. I was, you know, life was showing up for me on a daily occurrence. So, I mean, you know, and I was making good money. I was comfortable in life. Didn't really need to look for anything extra. So what happened was, you know, I am a big person upon spirituality and I believe that God does things for a reason. And anytime that things are meant to be there, they'll always be meant to be.

So what happened was, after I completed my degree, I ended up getting a phone call one day about 9:00 in the morning. And I can still tell you exactly where I was at saying that they found my twin brother. My twin brother was truthfully my best friend. And, as you can only imagine, being a twin, but when I say they found my twin brother, it meant that I got a call from my wife saying that the coroner reached out to her, wanting to know what her affiliation is to this man, and I had just gotten into work.

I had just sat down at my desk, and I had no choice besides two obviously verify who the guy was, verify the body and all that stuff. And I got to thinking about the whole situation that during this process I used to say to myself all the time, if you continue to wait till the right time, the right time will never come.

And for whatever reason, I saved this guy's number. And I reached back out to this guy. And I wanted to see what it was that he was wanting to do. I had just completed my MBA. I had just done everything. So I was like, you know what? How am I going to better my life? What am I going to have to do to be better in my lifestyle?

So I reached back out to that guy and he put me in touch with like 3 or 4 different franchise options. I love the home remodeling industry because not only do I get to be a blessing to my family, but I get to be a blessing to other people's families.

I elected to stay with where I was at, as far as you know, getting, you know, just doing the home remodeling process. But then what I wanted to do is I wanted to know what I could do to actually utilize my degree. Well, that's where all this came into play. And, you know, obviously, the rest was history. I elected to buy the Handyman Connection franchise after doing my due diligence and here we are three years later. I haven't looked back.

Alan: That's great. That's great. So tell us a little bit more about Handyman Connections. What kind of work? Range of work do you guys do?

Kori: So we will do jobs as low as $250, which is what our minimum is. And then we will do jobs as high as $150,000. I mean, I elected in the state of Kentucky. You do not have to have a general contractors license, but I elected to go ahead and get my general contractors license because I want to be able to remodel basements. I want it to be able to fully remodel a deck from start to finish and in some aspects, when you do fencing, you have to be able to pull a permit.

So I elected to go ahead and do that. You know, we will do your small odds and ends. We will offer handyman for a day, handyman for a half a day. Our bread and butter here in Louisville is probably your 2 to 3 day jobs. Any job that's over about - you know, our average job size this year has increased from 1500 last year to up to 3300 this year.

So that's definitely our bread and butter because it's less scheduling headache. You don't have to worry about a guy going to ten different jobs. You don't have to worry about as much project management. But I will never - because as I stated earlier about what got me started, I will never forget what my foundation is, and I'll never forget what took me to the place I am.

Which means that I will never not do the small jobs because the small jobs turn into repeat business, which then turns into larger aspects of jobs. So I like to stay humble. I like to stay grounded, and I like to make sure that we keep a solid foundation going. And we don't want to see that crack happen.

Alan: That's great. That's great. Yeah, I know you know, with handyman work, it can vary so much as far as the size of these jobs, like you said, you know, so it's a small job that might take like an hour to do to, you know, a full remodel of a basement, like you're saying. I think that's very smart. Well, two things are very smart. One, that you went ahead with your general contractors license to open yourself up to those much larger jobs, which is fantastic. And then those smaller jobs, I mean, that's such a great idea to - I mean, really, you go in and you're the $250, you know, it may seem like a waste of time for some people, but for you, you're thinking long term. You're building a relationship. You're getting paid to have a lead for life. Hopefully if you do a good job.

Kori: Whereas is a man going to go and make $60 an hour? They're just not. Because let's just call a spade a spade for what most of your contractors are. I mean, most of your contractors, especially the blue collar ones, a lot of them have had a damaged past. A lot of them have, you know, home life issues all the time. So, you know, no education besides maybe a high school degree. So where else are you going to go and be able to have a good career and make $60 an hour? You're just not going to do that besides in the trades.

Alan: Yeah. Tell us, you know, what does your team look like?

Kori: So basically so I did not state this. I am a person that does fully believe in second chances in life, because people have given me second chances. So we do run full background checks on all of our guys. But I go a step further and I actually run drug tests on all of my guys.

Obviously the only thing that I'm not checking for is I'm not checking for THC, because you've got to be very careful with that because of certain state laws. Some state laws have it to where that's legal. But, you know, when I - because I come from the trades world, I want to have trades people, meaning that I have - I'm about 50% W-2 and I'm about 50% subcontractor, meaning that with a W-2, you know, I have to make sure that I keep those guys busy. With a subcontractor, I just like to keep them busy enough to where they either get my work load, they get my overflow, or, I mean, if they want to work with me a lot more, you know, I'll make sure that I feed them while they're getting a good - strike while the iron is hot.

But when I go inside, one of the biggest selling points that I do about my guys is like, you know, I like if I go to hire a painter, and the painter sits here and said, and I ask that guy, are you looking for part time work? Sub work? What do you look for? You looking for full time work? If all he says to me is he does drywall and painting, I ask him, are you willing to help out on a job? If they say no? I say, well, you know, unfortunately I'm not going to be able to because unless you're willing to be a helper on a job, I can't give you full time work.

If all you do is paint, you know, again, I just can't give you full time work because that's not all that I do. But I like to have that guy that's what his specialty trade is. Because now that guy that can do painting and maybe do some window casing trim and maybe do some floorboard trim and not just paint it, they're going to stay a lot busier than that guy that can only do painting.

Alan: If you're wondering if franchise ownership is right for you, I'd love to help. As a franchise coach, I work one on one with my clients to find the perfect business match that meets their goals, skills, and investment level, and help them prepare to be champions in their new business. The best part? My service is completely free. To schedule a 15 minute introduction call, visit athletetoowner.com. You'll find the link in the show notes. Now back to our show.

I think that's a really smart way to go to have that mix of full time, like W-2 and subcontractors. I think that's a great way to grow, you know, where you've got, you know, your full time guys, you want to keep full time, keep them busy. And as you get more jobs and you get, you know, you bring on some subs and eventually when you get that work steady enough, then they, you know, you either bring them on as full time or just bring on additional subs. Smart way to grow.

Kori: Absolutely. And then I've got two office staff, I've got an office manager and I've got a CSR. I pride myself in coaching because I think a lot of the mistakes that we make as business owners is we want to fire somebody after the first mistake that they make. We want to get rid of them while they're only making $17 an hour. They should know all this stuff by now. Well, where is the coaching coming from? Where is the team morale? Where is that culture fit in on these?

So I like to use, you know, I often live off the motto of you're either winning or you're learning. I don't feel like we ever lose unless you just give up. And so with that being said, which has now turned into, you know, I've got people that have been - you know, my office manager has been with me for two and a half years.

I've got a partner that's been with me for three years. I got a guy that I've known for 20 years that I used to sell to. He's now my lead foreman. He's been with me for two and a half to three years. You know, I think having continuity and longevity is very important to the success rate of a business, because if I was a contractor, if I was an employee looking for a job, I do not want to go work for somebody that's going to have high turnover every single week.

It just doesn't make sense to me. I want to know that I can - I don't like to call it a job. I like to create people career paths. Because if you take me to the mountaintop, you're going to the mountaintop with me. Job stands for just over broke. I want you to look at this as a career.

Alan: Yeah, that's great. You know, I was - my next question was, you know, about, you know, if you find there to be a challenge with hiring and maintaining team members, it sounds like clearly you're doing something right. You've got some people that have been there from the beginning. You know what? What's your secret sauce in keeping people?

Kori: Don't get that twisted. That doesn't mean that hiring and firing isn't hard. Because first of all, I have a conscious. I am a human being. I hate, even though when people get fired, they typically fire themselves before you ever actually do the firing. But with that being said, any time that you fire somebody, you're messing with someone's livelihood.

So you know that there is that God conscious part of me that, you know, but then I have to think to myself, like, what justice am I doing by keeping someone like that around? If the guy's not willing to learn your way and the guy's not willing to do it the right way, and they continuously cause problems, their mouth is constantly getting themselves into trouble. You know, all that's going to do is bring down your culture. So at the end of the day, you're better off to just let them go.

But with that being said, I like coaching opportunities because if I can become a motivational speaker to you because more than likely these guys, they're no different than me. Obviously, we put our pants on the same way, but most of these guys, they just see Kori owning a business. They don't know the trials and tribulations that I've actually been in in my life. They don't realize that I'm probably closer to them than they think, if that makes sense, because at the end of the day, I know what the pits of hell looks like.

Alan: Yeah. That's so great to be, you know, when you when you can relate to your staff, you know, I guess empathy, this is what it comes down to is, is trying to not be above them in their eyes. You know, obviously you're the boss, but at the same time, if you can be relatable, it's a partnership. If you view this as a partnership, you're always going to be successful. But when you view this as a one way street - so what is a true sale? A true sale is when you both walk away from the table and you feel like you've accomplished something. A sale is not when you walk out of that house and you say, oh boy, I just got them for a ride.

Gouging people is not a sale. You know, scamming people is not a sale. A true sale is when you both walk away from the table feeling like you both won.

Kori: Yeah. For sure. You know, I love - I look at sales as problem solving and just helping people. You know, if you're focused on the right things and you're helping them, they want to buy from you. And at the end of the day, for sure. Absolutely.

So as the top performer in the system, congrats, by the way, on that. What sort of revenue are you on track for this year?

Alan: So this year - so year one I did and I like to say this because in my first ten months, I did $730,000 in my first year of business. So in ten months I did 730, it was one of the fastest growing franchises that they've seen within their system. We've been around for over 30 years. Year two, I did $1.34 million. This year I am on track to do $2.2 million.

Kori: That's amazing. That is crazy for year three. I mean, that is really unbelievable.

Alan: Again, it sounds great. Basically, being able to come out the gates as fast as I have, it has taught me a lot of learning lessons and has also taught me that it's allowed me some of the mistakes that we've made in our business to be able to master those mistakes, whereas now it's more of a focus on let's produce the higher quality.

Let's make sure that top line doesn't equate to bottom line all the time. So we want to make sure that top line is top line because top line can help out the bottom line a whole lot. Because at the end of the day, if you ain't making enough money to cover your bills, your bottom line is always going to be affected.

It don't matter if you have a 60%, 70%. It doesn't make a difference at that point if you don't have enough money to cover your bills. So therefore I have now prided myself to where we've gotten a grip on a lot of this stuff, to where now we're focused on maintaining and producing quality products, the same type of way that these guys would expect. Because I am not the cheapest, I'm not the most expensive. I just - my claim to fame is just to be the best.

Kori: I love it, I love it. So how much time do you spend reviewing your numbers, looking at the numbers and you know, whatever KPIs that you have for yourself?

Alan: I personally, obviously I have bookkeepers and I have a CPA. I personally spend every weekend. I sit down on Saturdays or Sundays, just depending upon what our family dynamic is going on, what sporting events are, what events - like, you know, I'm headed to a birthday party right now. You know, I am constantly - at least try to review all my numbers at least weekly, because I like to get a weekly chart.

And the nice thing about my bookkeeper is we update my P&Ls every week to where I get those numbers to where we're not just doing a quarterly review, we're not just doing a monthly review. Because a lot of times if you wait till the quarter or the monthly review, it's too late.

Kori: Yeah, absolutely. I think understanding your numbers is so important and you being able to understand your numbers on a regular basis, like a weekly basis, is going to allow you to change things, to change the course much more quickly than if you were to wait for a month or a couple months.

Alan: Absolutely. With this particular subject of just knowing your numbers, does the Home Office help you out with this or help the franchisees out with this, or is it something that everyone's kind of on their own for?

Kori: So they do - you've heard the saying energy produces energy before. You get out of what you put into something. When people fail - and not always, but majority of the time when people fail within a franchise system - because the network that I've got, I didn't need to do a franchise. I come from the industry. Most people are opening up construction businesses and they come from the insurance world. They ain't got a clue of what the construction industry is like or what the guys are like.

And, you know, a lot of these guys, they don't care about you. They care about themselves. And, honestly, that's probably a pretty strong indication on where every industry is at because it's all about what's in it for me. And so what I have often prided myself on is I'm talking to somebody from home office probably daily. And most people aren't willing to utilize the resources.

God gives us resources for a reason. What is a salesman without input? Jobless. How can you get a contract signed if you don't have the ink pen on you? Well, I guess now technology, you can do everything electronically, but the point of that is, we're given these coaching tools, we're given these resources. Why not use these resources?

Because if I'm having an - I do a weekly goal setting reviews with both my people in the office, I do weekly. We set goals weekly. We review these at least three times a week. We see where we're at. We see what needs to be changed to hit these goals. And that's accountability from the franchise group. Outside of the franchise group, I also have two other people in my life that's very important to me that are what I call accountability partners.

Outside of my wife, outside of my family members. I have two other people that know how to run a business, not even in the construction world, but they know how to run the business aspect of things. And then the other one knows how to live life and constantly hold me accountable on things. I am very big on utilizing your resources.

Alan: I mean, that's great. You got accountability for both the business and for just living life too, though that's absolutely - I love it. Absolutely. Well, hey, what do I gotta do to be a better father?

Kori: My son does basketball full time year round. My son's 11 years old. If I'm that screaming idiot on the sideline, and as he progresses up through the college or the third through the rankings and is starting to get looked at by college scouts, their coaches don't want to deal with the outside noise.

It don't matter how good your athlete is if you are a problem, that problem will be dealt with and unfortunately it's at the sacrifice of your son. So therefore, you know, I've got guys - like I said, he's my son's mentor. You know, being a better parent, allowing my son to play the game instead of me being vocal all the time because I know better.

Alan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's tough to be a coach and a parent at the same time. Very fine line there. So something I do with my kids, when they're very, very little and knowing that, you know, it wasn't going to be for too long, with tennis, eventually I do bring them to other coaches and whatnot so I could focus on just being a cheerleader on the side.

Kori: You just want to be dad sometimes - just be dad. And sometimes that's what your child needs is just be dad. And I take that practice because the way that I would hold my son accountable is the same exact way I'm going to hold my employees accountable, you know? And to me, fatherhood and owning a business don't go hand in hand.

Alan: I have definitely seen those parallels as well. I love, you know, when I read the books on leadership or parenting, I hear a lot of the same stuff. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

A moment ago, you mentioned, you know, you've got that background in the home improvement industry and you even said like, hey, I didn't need to go with the franchise route. What made you decide to go with that, franchise instead of just starting from scratch?

Kori: So one thing that I do know about - I know what running on self-will will do for you. So just so we get this clear, I have a background in what we call recovery. So I have now been sober for over 17 years. I got sober when I was 21 years old. So at the time everybody else was having their fun in life. I decided I better check myself before I wreck myself.

Fortunately for me, I never caught no felonies or anything like that, but I knew what accountability was from that moment on because I had to hold myself accountable as well as allow other people to hold me accountable. So you ask that question, and we often use the phrase around the rooms that says self-will run riot. But when there are systems out there that already had the will and the secret sauce to success, why not grasp that will?

Why reinvent the wheel? Because I have the industry experience does not mean I had the business experience. And being humble to understand that, to know that about yourself is something that is a very big key to success. I knew that the bottom line would be hit a little harder because you have franchise fees, you have royalties and all this other stuff. But at the same token, is it really hit harder? And I would argue that point, saying that it's not because with a franchise, you get added discounts to, like when you're paying for leads, you get additional discounts, you get additional support.

So that software system that you may need, that CRM that you may need to be successful, may cost you X. But going through the franchise route, they're getting a significant discount because they're doing it based upon 90 people versus rather than just one person. So you got the volume discount and stuff like that. So you got dedicated reps. You've got all this stuff to where I thought was very important to see that type of success.

Alan: Yeah, yeah. There's always that conundrum that people can run into, you know, do I go independent? Like, why don't I just do this myself or do I go with this franchise and pay these fees and the royalties and all the other stuff? And, you know, I was in the same position. I mean, I started a company from scratch. I did the independent route myself, and it was a ton of work. And I had to do everything. You know, it's great because you have that control of everything, but then you actually have to do everything.

With the franchise, and Alan, you could probably attest to this because you've got the experience, but with the franchise, I think the biggest value that you get from it is the network. And when I say the network, the network of other owners, because the Home Office isn't going to have the answers.

So, for instance, I was going to put a lien on someone's property last year. I called our Lexington, Kentucky branch. And I asked Chris, who's been around for a lot longer than I have. I said, Chris, what would you have done in my situation? I said, what can I do better before I sit here and slap this lien on this person? He goes, well, obviously this is what you need to do. Let's make sure that we all schedule a meeting. We make sure that we talk, we see where we're at before we sit here and start threatening lawsuits and liens and all this stuff, because my instinct says, screw you, you're getting a lien. I want my money. But that's not the way that we go about things. There is a way that you handle business without threatening attorneys and lawsuits and everything else. First and foremost.

Alan: If you're finding today's conversation valuable, I'd like to offer you my free book, The Franchise Fit Playbook: A Champion's Guide to Choosing the Right Business. This comprehensive resource walks you through the exact process I use with my coaching clients to identify their perfect franchise match. Download it for free at athletetoowner.com/playbook. Now back to the show.

In the 14 years that I had my business, I'm happy to say I don't think I ever got stiffed by a client, which is nice. It's rare. I mean, you know, unfortunately for me, it happened. And funny story about that is that's actually the Lexington, Kentucky store's old landlord.

Kori: Oh. That's interesting. Yeah. Big project that we were doing for them in Louisville.

Alan: Yeah. Those ones are pretty rare, but, you know, that's. Yeah. Going back to, you know, franchising versus not you know, I think that to me, at the end of the day, like your ramp up to what you did in revenue, even just that first year, not to mention the second. The third, like I just hard for me to believe on your own, you know, to get up and running that quickly.

Kori: You're not going to do that on your own. But what you will do on your own, you have to understand what sweat equity is. You have to understand the power of networking. And that's not just networking amongst your peers. That's networking. You know, like, for instance, for me, I sponsor my child's basketball team. I gave $500 in jersey expense with a return on investment of about $20,000. You know, knowing that I want to invest back into my community, work in these home shows. That doesn't cost you the same way. Angie and all that stuff does.

Working, getting in a BNI, getting into the chamber, knowing what can you do to lessen the blow on your marketing cost? How can you be personable within a community? What can you do personally to get your name out there? Because a lot of people want to work with the man - they don't want - I mean, especially with the way the economy is, a lot of people love family owned businesses. They want to support that.

So when you look at it from a franchise route, a lot of times we think of McDonald's, Starbucks and all that stuff. That's what we think about. We don't think about this kind of world. And I love to tell people, hey, not only am I a franchise which protects you, but I'm a family owned business, which means it's not unlikely for you to see one of my kids because again, they have to pay for - you know, my son's 11 and my daughter's ten.

She does cheerleading, he does basketball. And in order for them to continue to do that, when I work a home show, one of the two is going to go out there with me because guess what? You're going to tell me no before you tell a kid no. And plus, they got to know what it's like to work, too, because this stuff isn't free.

Alan: Honestly, I love that, with my own business. Same situation. My kids were young when I started the business. I had my second child who was born when I had my business already. And, you know, we would take them to the home shows, you know, the fairs. And I remember one of the events, one of my installers, his little baby boy, was in our cabinet display, one of the shows - he was in one of the drawers, one of the pull out shelves.

That was a classic photo we had. But it's such a great way to introduce them to the business world to just life, like, you know, making a living and get to see that the work that you put in, you know, the hard work that you have to put in versus, you know, never really understanding quite what you do. And, you know, to be able to experience it and to contribute, I think is pretty special.

Kori: Absolutely. You know, family is everything to me. You know, when you go through what I went through, you know, I didn't have the best childhood in the world. At the time, being a kid, you know, you feel like all that stuff was normal. Father was an alcoholic, basically a single parent. My dad died when I was in seventh grade. At the age of 18 years old, me and my twin brother are living in our own apartment together, paying for our own rent and stuff like that, working full time job and going to high school.

You know, the foundation wouldn't be what the foundation was without that man. Sorry. I get a little emotional whenever I talk about my past because and those aren't tears that I'm sad or that I need people to feel sorry for me. Those are tears of happiness because those are what strengthened me to get to where I'm at today.

Because I made a vow that not only when I say that I do to my wife, I said I do to my kids too, because that means I don't try to do anything in life. I just do it. Nike has one of the greatest slogans in the world, and a guy when I first got sober used to say, why don't you take the word, try out of your vocabulary and just do it?

And ever since then, man, that excuse - all that stuff that we all have doesn't mean nothing anymore because you're doing what you gotta do to survive in life. It's not about the money that you make. It's not about all that. But what I wanted to do was I want to provide my wife with financial freedom to where we wouldn't have to worry about all this stuff.

My wife has been off of work for the last two months because she had to have shoulder surgery. Guess what? That was not paid time off. And she's getting ready to go back to work now. But we were okay throughout that entire time because of the choices that I decide to make to better my life and to better our life. But those lives don't get changed if it wasn't for the past and knowing what it's like to struggle and understanding what the struggle is like. When they say the struggle is real, the struggle is real.

You know, growing up it was just me and my two brothers. We know what that's like. It was me, my brother and my grandma, my oldest brother and my twin brother and then my grandfather. It was us. And we learned a long time early in life, at the end of the day, when all else fails, you'll always have each other. That support system that a lot of people talk about having parents paying for their college and all that stuff, which I'm getting ready to start doing for my daughter. I had that support system.

I had what is called hard work. That is what I had. I had the will to not quit because there are so many points in this life, even owning this business, that all I wanted to do was quit because of the stress, the people out there, the way that people talk to you, you just can't imagine - you just can't put yourself in their shoes because guess what? I'm not supposed to understand the way that a drug addict thinks anymore. I'm not supposed to understand the way that some of these people think that when they feel like you screwed them, when in reality they screwed themselves. I'm not supposed to know that stuff, because guess what? I have a greater good in life and greater blessing continuously comes to our family because of the changes in the people that we allow in our lives and the amount of accountability that we have.

We have people in our lives today not afraid to tell us the truth. And, you know, I just think that when you can stay humble enough and you're not afraid - you know, a lot of people, you know, they call it Alcoholics Anonymous. Because back in the day, when Bill Wilson first started the program, everybody remained anonymous because you had a bunch of lawyers and doctors and all that stuff, so they would wear masks. So that's where the term anonymous comes. They didn't want their anonymity.

So that's the other aspect of it. We don't talk about that. I often say this in business when I got started, I want to be a blessing to my family first, to be a blessing to other people's family second.

Alan: You know, it's really interesting in life how these things that take you to that low point, you know, in your history - how those are the things that make you as strong as you are today and the ability to bounce back and to be resilient and, you know, have grit, of course. And, you know, that's an interesting thing.

I'm curious to get your perspective on this with your kids. And, you know, I'm assuming they're having a much, you know, their life up to this point has been much more steady and secure, more than the life, you know, that you grew up in. And, you know, I always get curious about that with my own kids as well. Same sort of thing. Like, you know, is there some disservice to them for not being able to build that kind of, you know, that grit? Obviously we want their lives to be good, but at the same time, having not having that kind of challenge in the life is somewhat - I don't know. Is that a disadvantage?

Kori: My kids will never see their dad take a drink or a drug. I've got a child that's a senior in high school right now. I often - now this is not word for word from the Bible, but the Bible comes out with an analogy of a good man leaves their child an inheritance, and an even better man leaves their child's child an inheritance. So one of the things that I set out and when my wife and I got married, we straight up said, we are breaking this generational curse, breaking the generational curse. We are not going to be another statistic. We're just not going to do it. Excuses no more. Devil get away. You know all that stuff, man. That blood of Jesus stay on our family. Please. For the love of God, stay in our family. Because God knows I need it. I need that full protection.

And I have worked - my brothers and I had a grass cutting business when we were ten years old. We rode around on this little snapper lawn mower with a little trailer and a bucket on the back, and we'd go around cutting grass, and the thing probably got up to 5 to 10 miles an hour. I mean, ten miles might be gracious. My 16 year old daughter works for me part time, three days a week during the summer and on her breaks, and then I allow her to work a couple days during the week. I want my child - again, I fully believe in hard work, I fully believe in accountability, and I fully believe in them making it on their own.

But I want my kids to be able to live a life in which I never got to experience, which was called being a child, which was called being a kid. No kid should ever have to be an adult and raise themselves. No child should have to do that. We as parents had that right to make that decision today. And my child, who is 18 years old, is looking at colleges now and getting ready to go away. She's in her senior year at high school. Other than working for me, you know. Yeah. I told her, if you know, car insurance is getting ready to come. You have to get ready to do some work and all that stuff.

And, you know, we have to figure out something for you on a part time gig. My child has never had to work a day in their lives because of the way we want - we want the education to come first because I don't want my children being contractors. Yeah, I want my children working in something else. If you're going to do this business, do what I do on the business. Don't get on your hands and knees and swing the hammer. But I don't want my kids to just because I lived that way. And don't get me wrong, it made me a better person. My kids deserve to understand what is right is right. What is wrong is wrong. They need to know that stuff. They need to know what hard work is like. They need to know. That's our job as parents to teach them and to guide them throughout life. But who am I to sit here and say, because I was raised this way, you're going to get a job the minute you turned 16 years old.

If my child is doing extracurricular activities and they're more focused on their studies, do what you do, Batman. Because go be a star and what you want to do. But at the same time, you got to be careful with that, because you also don't want them thinking that everything in life is given to them.

Alan: Right? That's the main thing for me, is gotta have a balance. Understanding the balance, understanding, you know, having that appreciation, the gratitude, you know, the ability to work hard at something. You know, that they're passionate about, the ability to follow through and, you know, understand that not everything is going to be handed to them and that life isn't going to be easy.

Well, so tell me, for our audience here, you know, what's one piece of advice you give to anyone out there that is considering franchise ownership as their next career move?

Kori: You gotta keep an open mind, and you've got to be willing to take advice from other people. You have to have accountability. People in your life have to have it because unless you just want to sign your check over and let somebody else just run it for you, I guess, and that's just giving them the ultimate power to a checkbook. But, I mean, you have to be willing to allow other people to help you. You have to humble yourself. A lot of us think that we can do things better ourselves. Well, my question to you is how much better of a business could you be if you could do this by yourself? But how much better could you be if you had ten people?

Alan: Yeah. I mean, I think that's the power of leveraging others. And to be able to build something special. Yeah. Having a team, having support, all good stuff. Great things for franchising. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Kori. And congrats on being a franchise champion.

Kori: Well, I appreciate that. You know, we're going for back to back this year. We'll see if we can get there. We currently year over year we still have the largest growth in the franchise.

Alan: That's amazing. That's amazing. Well keep up the great work. And I'm excited to hear how the year ends and hear how your business continues to prosper. Thanks for joining us, Kori.

Kori: Alan, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Alan: All right. Take care. I'm passionate about helping people find success in franchising like I did. These episodes take a lot of time and effort to make, and I'm committed to delivering high quality content for you. If you found value in these insights, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating wherever you're listening or watching. Your support means a lot to me. Thanks for listening to the Franchise Champion Show. I'm Alan Regala and I'll see you next week.