Why I Dismissed Franchising (And Why I Was Wrong)

This is a transcript from Episode 45 of The Franchise Champion Show.

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Alan: I subscribed to Entrepreneur Magazine for years, read every issue. I loved it, and every time I got to the franchising section, I flipped right past it.

Somewhere along the way, I decided franchising wasn't for real entrepreneurs. I'm not sure when that belief formed or why I believed it so strongly, but I did, and I was wrong.

After I graduated from grad school, I was working at a company called IDEO, doing design consulting. The company was really cool and I was doing fun work, but it never felt like I was meant for the corporate world. One day someone handed me a book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and it basically told me I should own a business. Most people who are wealthy have businesses, for various reasons, including tax purposes and other things. It just made a lot of sense to me. Like, oh yeah, you know what, maybe this is my path.

So I got interested in entrepreneurship, and reading Entrepreneur Magazine was a big thing for me. I subscribed, got it every month, and got really motivated by the articles in there, about people who'd come up with a great idea, created a business by solving some sort of problem, built it up, were successful, worked for themselves, and powered through all the challenging times.

To me, that's what entrepreneurship really was. It was creating something, building something from scratch, starting from zero, having some brilliant idea, and then building it out and getting it into the world, doing all the things needed to get this beautiful invention out there. That's what it was for me anyway. An invention, or maybe an idea for a great service, something new and novel and really unique. That really appealed to me. And maybe part of the appeal was being able to prove that you can do it, being able to get your idea out into the world. Maybe that was more about ego than anything else.

But regardless, that's what my idea of entrepreneurship was back in the day. And the interesting thing is, every time I got to the back of Entrepreneur Magazine, where they talked about franchising, it's always in the back section there, I always just dismissed it. Breezed right past it, went to the end, and continued on. I don't know what it was for me at the time.

The Belief That Held Me Back

For some reason, franchising just did not seem like it was for real entrepreneurs. No real entrepreneur had to start from scratch, I thought. They had to come up with the idea, they had to do everything. So for me, franchising was like, well, you're given this business that's already done for you, and that's something you're not creating yourself. I don't know, it felt a little bit like cheating or something like that. I don't know exactly what it was, but I dismissed it entirely for several years.

I knew that I was going to create my own business, and so I did. It wasn't that franchising was particularly intimidating, it was just that it felt like cheating. It wasn't for real entrepreneurs, I thought.

Building the Pico Pad

So in my hunt to have some brilliant idea and start a business of my own, I discovered a need I had for myself. Oftentimes I'd be out and about in the world, going to work or on vacation, and I'd have an idea in my head, something I'd love to jot down somewhere, take a note. This was back in 2004, 2005, so this was before the iPhone, but Palm Pilots and PDAs were a thing. I wanted to be able to write a note quickly to myself, and I was always looking for a pen and some paper.

So the idea that came to me eventually turned into the Pico Pad. It's a credit card sized notebook with a small pad of sticky notes and a tiny pen. This thing is super cool because the pen comes out and you're able to take notes on the go.

I created some prototypes and took them with me wherever I went. The beauty of it was that it fit in my wallet, and because I carried my wallet with me everywhere, I always had a little pen with me too. The pen was really the key, because even though this thing was tiny enough to fit in your wallet, with paper and sticky notes, the pen was actually usable because of these little wings that folded out.

I prototyped it, took it with me on vacations and trips and everywhere out of the house, and I found it really useful for taking notes here and there. I thought this was going to be it. This was going to be my multi-million dollar idea, my pet rock that I was going to have out there in the world, and millions of people would buy it, and I'd be set for life.

Well, it didn't happen exactly like that. I had this product, I had prototypes, and I decided, you know what, I'm going to go all in on this. So I wrote my own patents, got manufacturing set up overseas to build these out, and got the logistics figured out with a warehouse and a place to do distribution. I did all the marketing myself, I had someone do the branding for me, but then I did all these trade shows and exhibited all over the country.

I did a lot of things, and for what it was worth, things went pretty well, actually, given that this product was only a couple of dollars at what it sold for at retail. I ended up getting into several different retailers, a lot of them small mom and pop shops across the country. I even ended up getting into some big retailers, like the Container Store and Barnes & Noble. I also sold online, through Amazon and other e-commerce sites, as well as my own website.

So, all in all, things went pretty well. In fact, I even got into Entrepreneur Magazine. I was featured there for this particular product, which was really cool, because I had been reading about all the other entrepreneurs featured there for years before me.

The Lesson I Didn't Expect

Things seemed great on the outside. For what it was worth, I think the business did pretty well for such a small product at such a low price point, because I had to sell a lot of these things to make real money.

But I learned a couple of really valuable lessons along the way. One was that I had to sell a lot of these products, so volume was key, and I had to do a lot of marketing, a lot of these trade shows, to get into retail. I never did any paid advertising online or anything like that. But what I found was that the retailers I was working with wanted more products. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was creating a distribution channel, not so much selling one product that I was hoping was going to be a home run. It turns out it was like a single, maybe a double. It wasn't the home run I was hoping it was going to be.

These retailers I'd set up accounts with were looking for more products, and what I realized was, I was creating a distribution channel, and I needed to feed that channel with more products. That's really how product based businesses survive, at least if you're selling through retail. And I really didn't want that kind of business. So I didn't build out a whole line of products. I did create one or two more, which I brought to market, but I really wasn't as passionate about them.

So it was doing fine. I even did a custom printed version for companies to put their logos on, that they could give away at trade shows or use as gifts. Things were okay. And then in 2007, something called the iPhone came to market, and I basically saw the writing on the wall. You had your phone with everything on it, the Palm Pilot was now merged with the phone, and I could see the need for my product going by the wayside, except for people who didn't want to accept new technology and would rather use pen and paper forever, which, actually, was true for many people. I did get orders online for quite a few years after that.

But I could see this wasn't going to be something that was going to be super successful. It wasn't going to be that home run.

So I decided I was just going to do some consulting on the side, which is what I had been doing all along anyway. I started to focus more on the consulting side and just kind of let the Pico Pad go on autopilot, selling what I had in inventory. I learned a lot of lessons, it was a really good experience for me. I learned a ton through the process, but of course I wasn't making the money I had hoped.

If you're in the same place I was, just starting to take franchising seriously, I put together a guide called the Franchise Fit Playbook that walks you through how to evaluate whether this is even the right path for you. You can grab it for free at Athlete to Owner.

Now, back to the segment.

Finding My Way Back to Franchising

Then we moved to Seattle for my wife's work. She got a new position with the company she was working for, and I could bring my business anywhere, since I was just doing consulting, and the Pico Pad business was something I could bring anywhere too.

When we moved to Seattle, I decided, you know what, I'm kind of tired of doing this business with the Pico Pad. I know it's not going to go anywhere, so I really want to do something different. I was either going to get an MBA, or do more consulting, or start another business. And I really liked the idea of having a partner. I didn't know anyone who was looking to start a business or who had an idea, and I liked the idea of having a partner because I'd done that first business 100% on my own. I liked the idea of being able to collaborate with someone, and not have full responsibility for every single decision that needed to be made. It would just be more fun. And I wanted to scale it. I wanted to build something bigger than just myself.

That's when the idea of franchising came back to me. I looked back at these Entrepreneur Magazines I was still getting, and I thought, yeah, you know what, franchising kind of makes sense. You have a built in partner, essentially. You've got this organization, this company that exists and has a proven system, they have processes in place, and all I have to do is execute on the plan. So yeah, that made a lot of sense to me.

Meeting Mason

So I started looking into franchising by hiring a franchise consultant, a franchise coach. This is someone I'd found kind of randomly. He lived in Canada, and I never actually met him. I still haven't met him. He took me through this process of searching for franchises. His name was Mason. Thank you, Mason, for your help.

Mason took me through the process, and he started by getting to know me and my wife. We were both part of the process, even though my wife wasn't going to be part of the business. We knew this was going to be a big expense, a big investment, and there were a lot of decisions to be made, and we wanted to make sure we did it right, because it was going to affect our lives, our lifestyle, and our finances. So we did it together, which I'm glad she was a part of.

It started with an introduction, and then he did this really deep dive interview with me, where we took a survey and answered a lot of questions about our goals, our interests, how much money we wanted to make, what we wanted our lifestyle to be like, what our interests were, what we did for fun, and whether there were any certain areas we wanted to stay away from, or that we were maybe more excited by.

After completing all of that, he found a few different options, and we went through the process of exploring those options, talking to the franchisors. We went through the whole thing, and I ended up buying a ShelfGenie franchise. That's the business I started from scratch in Seattle, and grew to 12 territories, doing over $4 million in sales.

Building Something That Actually Worked

It was an amazing business. I had a full team, designers and installers, and a manager. The business was amazing. I didn't hit the home run in the first business, but in this one, I feel like I did.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say it was super easy from the beginning. I had to put a lot of work into it. I started from ground zero, but I followed the systems, I followed the processes. I had challenges that came up, I hired the wrong people, I had to figure it all out. But at the end of the day, I built a really great business with a really great team, and I was making way more money than I ever thought I could with this type of business.

I was able to go to my kids' softball games and practices, and never miss any of those really critical family events. I felt like I owned my time. It took me years to get there, but I was living the dream. I loved it.

And of course, I sold that business back in 2024. Now I'm doing this, which is helping other people get into franchising. This is my retirement job, being able to share the knowledge and experiences I've had to become successful in franchising. This is my way of being able to pass it on to others, because I had such a great experience in franchising, and I know not everybody does. I feel like this is a mission of mine, to be able to share what I've learned with others, to help others succeed in franchising, and help them achieve their financial and lifestyle goals, because it's truly a life changing event that can happen for people, and I want to help people get there.

What I Got Wrong

So this is a little embarrassing, I have to admit. I poo-pooed franchising for years, and didn't think it was for real entrepreneurs. I thought you had to start from scratch, you had to do it the hardest way possible to be legit. But I was totally wrong.

Starting a franchise business is just as good as starting from scratch. It's different, right? You've got the pieces in place, you've got systems, you've got processes, you've got a built in partner that's going to help you be successful. Is that cheating? I don't know. It's much easier than starting from scratch, yes, of course it is. Does it mean you're not a real entrepreneur? Definitely not. Having a business, starting a business, owning a business is not easy, no matter how you slice it.

When you can have a leg up and start with some pieces already in place, especially things that have already been proven out to work, of course it's going to be easier, and you're going to get up to speed much faster. But there's still a ton of work involved. You're still an owner. You're still going to have people to hire, people to train. You're going to have issues that come up. You're going to be learning a lot, and that's going to be the same no matter what. But with franchising, you have support. You've got things that are provided to you, which makes it way more accessible to more people.

You don't have to have that spark, that initial idea, to be successful, but you do have to have the drive. You have to have the desire to be successful, and the willingness to learn new things. Listen to the franchisor, follow the systems, follow the processes. That's critical. And when challenges come up, you have to be willing to keep going at it. You've got to have enough grit to keep moving forward and get back up each time you get knocked down.

Owning a franchise was a really amazing experience for me, from a personal development standpoint as well, just learning how to be a better leader and a better owner.

So yeah, franchising, I have to say, is fantastic. It's not going to be for everybody. Business ownership isn't going to be for everybody. But I'll say that for those who want to build it from scratch, do it yourself, and you're afraid of giving up control, and you want to have control over everything and do everything yourself, hey, have at it. I wish you the best of luck. That's certainly a path for some people. And for those who are looking for something that's a little easier, a little more accessible, and you don't want to have to think about every single aspect of the business, but you want a partner you can trust and rely on to take care of some of the things, like having a business model, business systems, and processes in place, which allows you to focus on the more important aspects of the business, like marketing, sales, your team, and your customers, then franchising is an amazing route, and I highly recommend you take a look, if that's something that's of interest to you.

If any part of this sounds familiar, if you've been skipping the franchise section too, I put together something that might be useful. It's called the Franchise Fit Playbook, and it walks you through how to figure out whether this is even the right path for you, before you look at a single brand. No obligation, no pitch, just a framework I wish I had. You can grab it at Athlete to Owner, or take a look in the show notes.