Welcome back to Networking Unleashed, Building
Profitable Connections, the podcast where we
uncover the strategies, stories, and systems
that turn relationships into real results. I'm
your host, Michael Forman, and today's episode
is going to challenge the way we think about
career growth, collaboration, and connection.
We're diving into three main doors into business,
starting one, buying one, and stepping into the
franchise world. My guest today knows these paths
inside and out, and will explore how networking
plays a pivotal role in each. Spoiler alert,
franchising isn't just following a playbook.
It's about building real, profitable, and local
relationships. So let's get into it. I'd like
to introduce Chris Ramo. He is my guest today.
He's got really quite a background, but I'll
let him tell you. Chris, welcome to the show.
Thank you, Michael. It's a pleasure to be here.
I have plenty to say about growing business.
And the reason for that is we started really
with an idea and built everything from... scratch
and along that path, had other experiences, opportunities
to buy, sell, eventually get into franchising.
And while I may not be as, as experienced as
some, I've been at this for about 20 years now
and happy to share anything that I can with,
with the audience. All right. So let's dive right
in. You've worked across all three entry points
into business startup acquisition and franchise.
Which one requires requires the strongest network
and why? I think the that's a tough one. Startup.
Startup for sure. And the only other one that
that may be neck and neck with that is is is
franchising the startup. Though we'll focus on
that for a moment. That's. Boy when you have
nothing but an idea right you do need help you
need help finding your way and There's so much
to learn so many mistakes to be made and the
more people that you can bring into your network
to help you through those mistakes, help you
not run into those trees. And if you do run into
those trees, help you get reoriented and continue
on. You can't do any of it by yourself. And so
you absolutely need a network. And above all,
I think a mentor or series of mentors in that
startup realm, it's really hard, extremely hard.
Look at the numbers, number of businesses that
fail. after year one, after year two, after year
five, after year 10, that's because it's really
hard. And so you need people around you to help
you do that. Wouldn't you agree that you really
make the most progress from your failures than
your successes? A hundred percent, at least for
me. I've always long time ago, I saw the acronym
FAIL. First attempt in learning. And I don't
know if there's been a truer way to look at the
situation. If you're if you're hell bent on accomplishing
said goals, said feet, whether, you know, you're
an Olympic swimmer in the pool or you're an entrepreneur
trying to build a business. Each of those mistakes,
each failure, each time you lose. Yes, you are
walking. You got to lick your wounds. You got
to walk away and you got to put that to good
use. Don't waste that. Don't waste that loss,
that experience and that education in that loss
and not go back out there and use that to your
advantage. That's terribly unfortunate when people
lose and they just walk away, right? It is. And
I 100 % totally agree with you. I'm a former
business owner myself. brick and mortar business
owner from pizzerias to restaurants to ice cream
stores, graphic design studio. I've run the Gambit,
but those were only my successful businesses
and my businesses that flopped. I had, I learned,
I went to the school of hard knocks. I had to
learn everything the hard way, but that's all
right. Okay. So in franchising. People often
underestimate the power of relationships. How
does a strong network influence franchise success?
Well, I think there's two streams there. There's
the network as a franchisor, right? And franchising
is a very unique business model. It's heavily
regulated. It's extremely expensive, but it can
be a model and a path that brings tremendous
success to everybody involved. And so as a franchisor,
similar to the startup, and that's why I felt
like those two were really neck and neck. There
are so many layers to doing it successfully.
that you need you need mentors, you need coaches,
you need lawyers, you need professionals with
that with a franchise specialty to help you navigate
those waters and including vendors and suppliers
and people who are going to bring your franchise
concept, their skills, talent and expertise.
And so you have to you have to build a strong
network to Help your franchise grow and what
that's doing is bringing all of those same resources
to your franchisees And that's the second part
of the equation is building a network of franchisees
and those franchisees building networks within
their community right as a small business owner
and Boy relationships are everything in franchising
in my estimation primarily between the franchisor
and the franchisee. A lot of the short talk language
that goes on around franchising is profitability
and AUV and it's numbers oriented and it's about
growth and scalability and all of those things.
And that's absolutely a huge part of what everyone's
doing in franchising. There's an opportunity
to scale a business here, but you cannot do it
if you do not have strong relationships with
your franchisees right because it is based entirely
on trust and then from trust to validation right
franchisees looking at a franchise concept they
think they want to do it i like this brand i
like what it's about i'm going to become a franchisee
there's oftentimes a significant upfront investment
especially if it's a brick and mortar right they've
got to do go through a construction build out
and renovations you can be talking about hundreds
of thousands of dollars and whether that's through
a bank loan or they're funding that themselves
that's a separate part but at the end of the
day they're putting their money where their mouth
is right and they expect the same from the franchise
or and You it's you have to be Open transparent
honest you have to let them know we don't have
resources for that yet. We're still working on
that We're building that that or we do that well,
and we know that well And here's what we're gonna
tell you should do because we know this and so
everything is relationship oriented It's essentially
a marriage. It's a business marriage for five
years or ten years however long your your agreement
is and Through thick and thin and there is trust
there is both thick and thin. A franchisor cannot
protect. There's not a force field to challenge
for the franchisees. That's not what it is. It
is mentorship and guidance and coaching and resources.
But those curve balls still come, right? We're
not standing in front of the curve balls. They're
still coming at you. And we're just trying to
teach you how to swing. It is very deeply relationship
oriented in a business setting. I agree a hundred
percent. I've been a franchise owner as well.
And I realized the relationships are so important
between myself and the franchise or that relationship
is so important, but my relationship with my
customer base as well. And the days of building
your customer list really is gone. The days of
building relationships is there because you never
know who, who knows who. Right. You're talking
to not only those people, but those people networks.
Right. So you're talking to a grand audience.
And nowadays it's a, there's a digital network.
Right. So if you don't have a great relationship
with one of your customers or one of your clients,
they're not just talking to their circle of friends
during the dinner party. You're talking to 300
million people via a Google review. Okay. Very
good point. Very good point. Okay. So. What makes
networking essential when someone is evaluating
or buying a franchise? It goes back to the trust.
They, I think they need to see and know and understand
that you have a network of resources available
to them. That's part of what they are entering
into that brand for. Hey, I have the gumption.
I've got the tenacity to start and run a business,
but I don't have the resources. I don't have
the know -how. And this brand seems well prepared
and they have, maybe they don't have all of the
resources that will ever be needed, but they
have a marketing team. They have accountants
and bookkeepers that might be available to me,
whether required or through a recommendation.
Okay. I'm stepping into. network a system that
already exists with all of these resources That
that's a significant value. Otherwise, I have
to go develop that and build that myself I'm
gonna go through four accountants before I find
the accountant. That's right for me I'm gonna
go through six marketing agencies before I find
the marketing agency That's right for me and
these folks have done a lot of that and vetted
that and so I'm almost It's not business in a
box and a lot of people say that but it's not
that it is You do and it's not turnkey, but you
are turning the key and opening the door and
you're walking into a lot of opportunities and
a lot of networking opportunities and then on
the other side in terms of That's once they become
a franchisee, I think before they become a franchisee
There's a part of that process that we refer
to as validation And that's where existing franchisees
are given the opportunity to speak to a candidate.
And that is that can be no holds barred. Right.
If they're happy, they're going to say good things
about the franchise. And if they're not happy,
they're not going to say good things about the
franchise. And there's no limitations. They're
an independent business. It's. has virtually
nothing to do with us. And that network of franchisees,
existing franchisees, is what the prospective
franchisee is looking to build, right? To build
with and learn from. And then they become a franchisee
inevitably. And now, okay, these were the people
who helped me make my decision or not make my
decision, if that was the case, and they ended
up doing something else. But it is so much relationship
driven. Sometimes I'd argue before numbers driven.
What's the family I'm stepping into here? Do
you find that a lot of the franchisees communicate
with one another and help them out? Yeah, we
encourage it. Absolutely. And I think we I think
it's easy for us to encourage it because we're
very confident of the culture that we have here
and that we've developed in our particular brand.
But that's so important. And they'll cite that
too. There's a, we have an internal communications
hub that we, that we use to, to share information
from franchises or franchisees and they have
their own chats developed where they're problem
solving and working with each other. The ones
that are more senior are certainly passing down
anything that they've learned, any of their takeaways.
Don't let that contractor tell you this stuff
like that. And, and it just, it just. It grows
and it fosters a positive Culture and then if
there's one that that just doesn't fit in and
they don't want to participate and they want
to do their own thing or whatever like The groups
understand the group sees that group senses that
right and it's always open doors because a franchisee
is franchisee But we're gonna we're gonna continue
helping each other over here And if you want
to do your own thing over there, that's fine.
The results are being driven through participating
in the family and the network in the cohort,
maybe would be the best term for it. OK, great.
OK, so tell me about a time when a single relationship
changed the trajectory of a business purchase
or franchise opportunity. I would I think I would
cite there's really two that come to mind. One
is upon meeting our attorney. Our franchise attorney
we had been with a couple of attorneys throughout
the Previous two years of setup and development
and and that probably doesn't sound good. Like
we got fired from two attorney No, that wasn't
the case. The first one created our initial documents
retired shortly thereafter. So we had to go find
a new group to work with and That wasn't it just
was not a good fit and so then we moved on from
there and found our current attorney and once
that happened boy everything fell into place
and Just because he understood our place in the
world as a micro emerging franchise or as a startup
franchise or certainly confident with his legal
advice and so on and so forth. But a lot of good
franchise business advice as well. And to this
day, before we make a big decision, we turn to
him and say, hey, bouncing this off you, what
do you think? What do you see out there? Is this
something franchises are doing? And and it's
just it's good general all around counsel. And
so what that did was once we were in alignment.
We it opened the doors to how are we going to
really develop this this brand for ourselves?
And the other one I think is our probably our
first franchisee when they came into the picture
and they had inquired We I mean it took it was
about a year. So they inquired at the very February
of 2020 So there's something starting to develop
around that time across the globe February of
2020 and and so there was a lot going on we Liked
them a lot what they and they were Looking at
becoming our first franchisees and that took
there were a lot of challenges as you can imagine
and that took the better part of that year, all
of 2020, to work on that relationship, work on
what's going on in the world, what is this going
to mean? How are we going to proceed? It was
a registration state. We had to figure that out.
There were things and it all came together end
of year. December, I think they signed December
28th of 2020. And that changed everything for
us. had done it. We had our first franchisee.
They were completely bought in. They saw how
we handled the pandemic from a business perspective.
That gave them the confidence that like, look,
no matter what challenges may be around the corner,
we're with the right people, the right brand.
And that opened the doors for number two, three,
four, five, six. They all came based on the validation,
right? Going back to that validation question.
of those first franchisees and everything that
they had to say and share in their experience
with us as the first ones through the door. Wow,
that was great. That was a great story, by the
way. OK, you had mentioned turnkey. That's really
not turnkey. There's a myth that franchises are
just plug and play. Where does networking still
come into play post purchase? Lot of two -part
answers. I feel like today to answer one. I think
the strongest Network that the franchisee post
post Franchise signing post agreement is with
the other franchisees which we touched on a moment
ago that that is far and away the number one
Network they rely on each other Validate for
each other even sometimes it's emotional right
man. This buildup process is really challenging
and hey, I've been there. That's the You're going
through what everyone goes through and here are
some things that I learned and so on and so forth
so that that network is number one and I think
for the franchisee and we have a lot of conversations
about this on the front end There's that personal
network for them because whether they're stepping
into a franchise or Starting something on their
own their friends their family their partners
in home their spouse their children They're about
to step into a life with a franchise with an
entrepreneur. I'll put it that way and in our
case. It's a franchise or so When they're When
they're considering Joining the franchise we
require that at the very least even if your partner
whoever You know is closest to you in your life.
Usually it's a spouse or a living partner domestic
partner They have to at least get one, maybe
two calls with us. Oh, no, they're not going
to be involved. This is my endeavor. We understand.
But we want to talk to them and we want them
to ask us questions. And we want to all be on
the same page because they're about to be the
partner of an entrepreneur. And that's a completely
different life. And if they're not on board,
that's going to come to roost at some point.
Why are you working so late? Why are you working
so many days? Can't we you haven't been around
and that's going to wear on you and that's going
to stress you and the division can start to to
creep in and so that personal network is Extremely
important after the signing as well, right? So
going up to getting through the finish line and
then post franchise agreement because they're
going to need continued support emotional and
otherwise and Just like we were talking about
at the onset. You can't do it by yourself We
can't do it within the franchise system by yourself
or the business system by itself, but you can't
do it personally either It takes a lot to be
a business owner and you have to have a strong
Personal network that's going to support you
through thick and thin Yeah, no listen being
a for business owner. I worked eight days a week.
I worked 25 hours a day. I worked 366 days a
year. That's what, and my wife understood that.
She said, look, you're just starting a business.
You've got to put the time in. But I didn't really
realize how much time I need to put in until
I got in there. Yeah. And then it all happened.
But it was all, it was good for the most part.
That's the duck. That's the duck meme, right?
Or the ducks, the duck video. So I think people
who are not familiar with business ownership
and they see the duck, that's the business owner
gliding across the water, right? Oh, they get
everything in life they wanted. And what's happening
underneath the surface of the water, paddling
like a mad person. Absolutely. Absolutely. And
that's all that I can remember. Okay. So how
should someone who's buying a business network
differently from someone starting from scratch?
So in, in a business purchase, I think the network
really starts with how are you finding, how are
you finding that business and how are you vetting
that, that business, right? A lot of times a
transaction like that will be represented by
a business broker. And that broker is bringing
the network of available businesses to your table
for consideration. And so finding the right business
broker, business consultant to do that and trusting
that, hey, you and that person are in alignment
with what you're looking for. Do you want to
be in manufacturing? You want to be in service?
Do you want to be in the restaurant industry?
And what can you afford to do? And what's your
experience? And are they bringing you a complicated
business that you shouldn't be? Getting involved
in if you're if this is your first time through
through the process Can they find something simpler
that might be available and find finding that
right? Consultant to to help you through that
journey is probably step number one That's probably
the most important part of that that network
outside of that are the other people who are
going to vet That opportunity right your accountant
certainly your legal counsel again, we can go
back to to your personal network, right? What
are the requirements of this new business that
you're thinking about buying? What does that
look like? And so, because it's established,
there are, like, when we talk about the accounting
part, there's already numbers flowing through,
right? So you need hard analysis on that. Is
this viable? Does it make sense? Whereas when
you're a startup, There are no numbers. It's
all conceptual and any accountant that you work
with, network with, they're not going to have,
they might have some general guidance. Hey, just
make sure your profit margins here and make sure
your expenses don't go above this general consensus
number, but they can't really give you any deep
analysis because there's nothing to analyze.
So you're starting that process. You're going
to build that business and you're going to work
with them as it develops. When you're buying
a business, all that stuff exists and you need
hard eyes to help you work through, does this
make sense? And there's so many different components,
right? The team, the existing labor, what kind
of technologies, what is the reputation of the
business out in the world? You need a network
of good analysts to help you through that process.
Okay. What's a small networking action a new
franchisee could take that leads to big long
-term gains? So know that some of that answer
is going to be dependent on the brand, right?
So we have a pet oriented brand and for us networking
with veterinarians is far and away one of the
most beneficial. relationships that you can start
to develop as a franchisee of our brand. Whereas
another brand, it could be a very different group
or subset of professionals. But in general, it
is finding the top, we'll call it one, two, maybe
three referral sources for yourself, right? So
you always want to network with customers, but
that's one relationship for each customer. It's
one to one the whole way through. If you can
find that B2B relationship, you know, is there
another professional industry that kind of accentuates
your business? There's some synchronicity there.
So we're in the pet care field. So what doesn't
it make sense? Veterinarians. And so finding
that B2B and working your network through those
other connections can bring a it's almost like
a pyramid, right? You have the one referral source,
that B2B referral source at the top, and you're
benefiting with all of the referral opportunities
from just that one relationship. You made one
relationship, you get all those referrals. It's
exponential versus having to go through one one
by one with each individual customer. That's
where where stoking your relationship really
comes in handy. It's not just a customer. You're
not selling widgets. I have three for a dollar,
you want to buy it good. It's very transactional,
right? What we're doing, both you and I in different
ways, is we're building relationships and you
don't know what type of relationship you're building
because not only building a relationship with
that person, but you're building a relationship
with all... of their relationships so it can
go even longer. Yeah. And people hold that tightly,
right? Like a recommendation. If I'm going to
make a recommendation, I want to know that recommendation
is going to work well. And if it doesn't or it
hasn't, I feel horrible. And it may not even
have been in my control or whatever. That's something
that people hold dear pretty dear to them is
their reputation because it's what's carried
through that recommendation and so if you can
Build positive relationships where people are
opening up and yeah, I have a guy for that. Yeah,
I have a woman for that Sure. I got I have a
professional for that. You're well on your way
now working is Nine -tenths of the equation of
success. There's no question crucial. I believe
that networking is the base or basis of all businesses.
Everyone, whether it's digital or in person or
both, probably both, you just have to go out
there. They have to see your face, see you, feel
you, touch you. You have that whole networking
mantra, know you, like you, trust you. They'll
do business with you. Everything has to come
to pass in order for you just to Go to the next
step. And that's part of what I do, but that
is all inclusive. So let's bring this podcast
full circle. How has your personal network evolved
as you've moved through these three models? What
do you lean on most today? Really dependent for
me to continue my entrepreneurial journey, I
really have to rely heavily on on instincts and
those instincts. Certainly they're a part of
DNA. That's what's instinctual about them. But
as you go through life, journey, challenges,
successes, all of that, it certainly gets refined.
And from a human to human networking perspective,
it's relying on the people who are walking that
path with you. for you, but they also have to
be doing it for themselves. And that means that
they believe in what we're doing here. Right.
So whether it's my CEO, my ops director, our
managing or I'm sorry, our marketing director,
whether it's investors, whether it's the franchisees,
it's it is relying on them to a degree to do
what they do best. And in in that delegation
of that sort of that responsibility, they're
bringing the organization to a level that I could
not possibly do myself. And you build that network,
internally, externally, whatever both sides really,
and you have to rely on it, you have to trust
it. And there's, there's only blind trust at
the very beginning, right, but those instincts
kind of bridge that gap. And then from there,
the trust is developed because you see the results.
Absolutely. Chris, I can probably talk to you
for another hour about all of this because I've
learned so much and it makes me rethink everything
with networking itself, especially with a brick
and mortar and everything else. But networking,
I still believe, is the basis of all businesses.
And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter
if there's a monitor in front of us and 3000
miles between us, there's still a human on either
end of that connection. And so I think business,
we're worried about AI. We're worried about what
does technology mean for things? And we're going
to have to figure that out as a species. But
as, as long as we're here. Businesses is transacted
between. to humans and it always will and forever
till we're not here anymore. Very good. As a
matter of fact, if you don't mind, I'm going
to steal that because I like that. Have at it.
Chris, this has been great. If somebody wanted
to get hold of you, either to talk about a franchise,
to talk about business or just anything, just
to wave hello, how would they get hold of you?
Primarily the, our franchise websites, great
place to start. So it's happy cat franchising
.com. Happy cat is our, our franchise brands,
a luxury cat boarding and grooming concept. So
if you're pet oriented, have at it there, there's
a, an online form. You can fill that out and
it'll go to the necessary party. If you put a
note in there trying to reach me, I'll certainly
get it. And then we do a podcast of our own actually.
And I do that. separate from happy cat, but that's
really for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs
primarily. And so if your audience is listening
because they're trying to learn, that's a, that's
another avenue. It's at the end of the day podcast.
They can catch us over there. That's great. Chris,
thank you very much for coming on today. And
I hope to speak with you soon. You got it, Michael.
Anytime. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Well,
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