The Truth About Franchises with Rich Potter

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union studios, Hartford County living presents conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Rich Bennett 0:27
Success. For a lot of people, that means the corner office, the study paycheck, and climbing the corporate ladder. But what happens when you finally get there and realize something still feels like it's missing? Today's guest knows that feeling firsthand. After spending more than a decade in corporate sales, Richard Potter made a decision that completely changed the course of his life. He walked away from the comfort of corporate life and stepped into the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. And since then, he's built, grown, and exited multiple businesses, became a multi-unit franchise owner, and now helps others navigate the often confusing world of franchising through franchise heroes. Richard brings a real world perspective to business ownership, the wins, the mistakes, the lessons learned, the hard way, and the truth about what entrepreneurship actually looks like behind the social media highlight reels. From launching startups and scaling businesses to helping people avoid costly franchises and mistakes, he's seen both the exciting side of ownership and the reality's most people never talk about. If you've ever wondered whether business ownership is right for you, if franchising is really a shortcut to success or how to move from working for someone else to building something of your own, then this is a conversation that you're going to want to hear. So grab your herb and grab your coffee, grab your water. Whatever it is you're going to be drinking and buckle up because you're really going to like this. Do you go by Richard 

Rich Potter 2:15
or Rich? I go by Rich. 

Rich Bennett 2:16
Oh man, the two Riches. 

Rich Potter 2:18
The Rich Rich podcast. 

Rich Bennett 2:19
Yeah, the Rich Rich Shell. How's it going? How's it going, Rich? 

Rich Potter 2:25
It's great. It's great. My employee, my office manager, his name is also Richard, and we toy around with the idea we should start a podcast and call it Tudex and Mike. 

Rich Bennett 2:36
Oh, okay. Oh, my God. I have to tell you this. So my podcast was originally called Hartford County living with Rich Bennett because my good news website came first, which is HartfordCaneloven.com. Now, he says, years later, a friend of mine, she's in TV, Christie Brezzle. She suggests that I changed the name of the show. I was like, okay, well, let me check if my sponsors if they're okay with it. I'll change it. But let me ask the listeners for some input. That was a mistake. Someone. 

Rich Potter 3:08
He 

Rich Bennett 3:08
said. And now Christie's going to recommend a conversation with Rich Bennett and thank God that one The 

Rich Potter 3:14
one. 

Rich Bennett 3:15
Richie Rich show, which I think that would be a copyright problem. What the rich Bennett shows like me know, but the worst one talking dick. 

Rich Potter 3:26
Talking dick. 

Rich Bennett 3:28
Say, okay, yeah, that says they would have to be a porn show and then he going to happen, man. That is not 

Rich Potter 3:35
happen. 

Rich Bennett 3:36
going to 

Rich Potter 3:37
I love 

Rich Bennett 3:37
You 

Rich Potter 3:38
it. 

Rich Bennett 3:40
know, when you have that name, Richard, there's some scary things that can come up there. 

Rich Potter 3:44
Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 3:45
Absolutely. Oh, so I want to go back before the franchise and part. 

Rich Potter 3:49
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 3:49
corporate America. Well, actually back even further. So when you were in high school, you know how they only say you should have a career path. 

Rich Potter 4:00
What 

Rich Bennett 4:01
was yours? 

Rich Potter 4:03
Back in high school. I wanted to play baseball. That's all I wanted to do, man. I wanted to I wanted to play shortstop for the Atlanta Braves next to Chipper Jones. Oh, 

Rich Bennett 4:12
wait. What did you get you? Why do you want to try to compete against the Ripken Brothers? 

Rich Potter 4:15
Oh, man. I just I love the Braves. I just I told I wanted to do is play baseball. So. 

Rich Bennett 4:20
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 4:21
I didn't I didn't know what I wanted to study. I didn't know what I wanted to do. You know, I had a paper route and I played sports year round. That's 

Rich Bennett 4:28
do. 

Rich Potter 4:28
what 

Rich Bennett 4:29
You 

Rich Potter 4:29
I 

Rich Bennett 4:29
were playing baseball 

Rich Potter 4:31
in high school. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:32
All right. So after high school, did you go to college or what? 

Rich Potter 4:35
I did I didn't play ball in college. Like 

Rich Bennett 4:37
Okay. 

Rich Potter 4:37
I was in. I wasn't great. Right. So I grew up in Salt Lake. Just north of Salt Lake. 

Rich Bennett 4:42
Mm hmm. 

Rich Potter 4:43
I moved to Arizona to go to Arizona State, I'm not wise, I was just a sun double fan 

Rich Bennett 4:50
Right. 

Rich Potter 4:50
growing up. I moved here to Arizona State and first I was studying journalism, so well I'm not going to play ball, maybe I'll write about 

Rich Bennett 4:59
it. 

Rich Potter 5:12
I'm a component distributor, they moved me to Texas for a year to go through their sales training and product training. And then I moved back to Arizona to the local sales of the centers. I ended up working for that company for 12 years. 

Rich Bennett 5:26
Wow. 

Rich Potter 5:26
It was a great company. You know, but kind of hit that ceiling, what really happened, kind of what changed things for me was what nine years in. My largest account got bought out by a company 

Rich Bennett 5:40
in 

Rich Potter 5:41
India. And I was worried that 65, 70% of my commissions were going to disappear overnight. 

Rich Bennett 5:47
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 5:48
We've all production to India, way cheaper there. It ended up not happening that way, it ended up actually exploding the business and they moved production to Mexico and I was totally going to support that. But it got it got me thinking because I was going to lose so much of my commission home, talking to my wife, I'm like, we got to do something else. Like we have to find a side hustle something like there's a possibility when it comes to be reduced here shortly. So like we got on Craigslist and Google and biz by cell. 

Rich Bennett 6:19
Oh my God. 

Rich Potter 6:22
We ended up, we ended up finding a photo booth company for sale and Phoenix and we did buy it, but I like the idea 

Rich Bennett 6:30
yeah. 

Rich Potter 6:30
And so I started researching that reach out to my dad. I'm like hey, can I get a $10, 000 loan? I want to buy a photo booth and start this photo with business. So he's like, yeah, let's go for it. So, I did, that's what we did. So I created my own website. We bought a photo booth and we found the cycle thumbtacked to start promoting ourselves and we started booking some cheap gigs. And within three months, we had a second photo booth. We hired our first of employees. It was a cool run. Like we eventually fast forward like six, seven years. We started doing events for Larry Fitzgerald. 

Rich Bennett 7:08
Oh, wow. 

Rich Potter 7:09
North Brooks, Trisha Earwood, Trisha Earwood, we did events for NASCAR here in town like we ended up doing some really cool high profile events. I can't remember how we got found, but the Garth Brooks stadium tour found us and we booked the event in Glenn Dell here in the Phoenix area 

Rich Bennett 7:27
Mm-hmm. 

Rich Potter 7:27
when Garth Brooks came to town. And it was Trisha Earwood's tailgate party 

Rich Bennett 7:31
Okay. 

Rich Potter 7:32
and they liked us so much. So like hey, do you want to travel with us? So you just put your photo booth on the bus or their semi and just fly into town and come do the events with us. And so we did that for about a year and a half until COVID hit and kind of canceling that stuff, but about every other, every month or so, I'd fly into a new town and set up my photo booth, hang out with Trisha Earwood's crew and it is cool. It was cool. It was a fun time. 

Rich Bennett 7:58
two things I picked up there. Number one, Bis by Sele. I haven't heard that in a long time. 

Rich Potter 8:04
Two, 

Rich Bennett 8:04
The photo booth industry, I remember people getting into it when I was when I had my mobile DJ business and I would hook up with them and you know, saw by soon. But it's amazing how far advanced even the mood or the photo booth things have come. And yeah, the ones that look like yeah, friend of my notary mits has one and it looks like a giant camera or phone. And you take your pit man. 

Rich Potter 8:38
We started with these like tent photo booths. 

Rich Bennett 8:41
Yeah, 

Rich Potter 8:42
initially, and then we started going to like the photo booth Expo and Vegas and the technology kept advancing and by the time exited with eight photo booths and they were more of the like the iPad style with the boomerangs and the 360 booth and all that kind of cool stuff technology there is, 

Rich Bennett 9:01
oh yeah, Oh, those 360 booths are amazing. 

Rich Potter 9:04
Yeah, they're pretty cool. 

Rich Bennett 9:05
So were you still working for corporate America when you were doing the photo booth thing? 

Rich Potter 9:09
I was. Yeah, it didn't quite replace my income initially, so we did that. We kind of added another division within the rental business. We did bubble soccer rentals. 

Rich Bennett 9:20
Oh 

Rich Potter 9:21
when 

Rich Bennett 9:21
yeah. 

Rich Potter 9:21
there's like an alcohol stuff. So we did that as well. And then about a year later, I was just on Facebook in a buddy of mine that I grew up with posted that him and his brother were killing it, selling stuff on Amazon, doing Amazon at BA. 

Rich Bennett 9:35
Right. 

Rich Potter 9:36
And at that time I had no clue that there were like third party sellers on Amazon. I didn't know what that was all about. This was 12 years ago. And so I reached out to him, I'm like, what is this at BA? Like, what are you guys doing? And they told me a little bit about it. And again, like I was, I was a sales guy for a distributor. So like distribution made total 

Rich Bennett 9:56
to 

Rich Potter 9:57
sense 

Rich Bennett 9:57
yeah, 

Rich Potter 9:58
And so I was like, let's let's try this. So like we started reaching out to US brands. We set up an Amazon account. We started reaching out to US brands to see if we could sell their products on Amazon. And back then, man, it was it was pretty easy. It's not so much anymore, but like you reach out to the brands and they'd be like, sure, yeah, sell our stuff. So we started selling on Amazon. You know, we did about $350, 000 in sales at first 12 months on Amazon 

Rich Bennett 10:24
not. 

Rich Potter 10:24
by year two. By year two, we were doing over a million dollars. And 

Rich Bennett 10:28
wow, 

Rich Potter 10:30
so we did that for about three years total. From the time we started the photo booth to the time, it like more than replaced my income. And I figured by that point, like I'm like the bottleneck in my business. 

Rich Bennett 10:42
yeah, 

Rich Potter 10:42
We're not growing anymore because I'm spending so much time at my corporate job. And so at that point, I was like, I gotta quit. So quit, got a warehouse, hire a full-time employee and just went all in on both the businesses. 

Rich Bennett 10:56
All right. So because you're a well, you know, you are a serial entrepreneur. And I know a lot of times when people jump into entrepreneurship, it could be scary. It could 

Rich Potter 11:08
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 11:08
be 

Rich Potter 11:08
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:08
very scary. I know my wife was scared when. Well, no, I said, we weren't together when I did the DJing, but with the Harvard County Living, I got to have a sales. I was my last sales for a company who was doing radio. Got out of that. And yeah, she was nice. Like, what are you going to do? Now, I'd never owned a franchise. But I've always started my own businesses. Still that entrepreneurship thing. So how scary was it for you the first time you jumped into that? 

Rich Potter 11:42
Well, the first time I bought a franchise was pretty scary. Jumping into these two businesses the way I did it slowly weighed my feet into it, keeping my job. Like that part of the wasn't scary at 

Rich Bennett 11:54
all. Right. 

Rich Potter 11:55
I knew like I had the fallback. I still have my job. I still made come. When I quit, those two businesses were making great money for us. And I saw an opportunity to buy into a franchise at that point. So I bought a small boutique fitness center 24/7 fitness center called snap fitness 

Rich Bennett 12:16
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 12:16
probably probably heard all 

Rich Bennett 12:18
point. 

Rich Potter 12:18
over the And so with that, that was scary. That was the first time that I jumped into something like that. I had to pay for, you know, I had to pay at least, that stuff. So it was a different experience. It was scary. You know, something I'm glad I did. 

Rich Bennett 12:34
all 

Rich Potter 12:34
We didn't keep the gym for a really long time. We sold it about a year in. It was kind of a distraction for my other businesses at the time. And that's where we're making more money. It was kind of a turnaround opportunity. And so we just had an opportunity that came up to exit. And we got really lucky. We sold it like December of 2019. So we skipped like the whole COVID gym owner thing. But it ended up being a disaster, unfortunately, for the couple that bought it from me. But yeah, it was kind of scary jumping into that. 

Rich Bennett 13:12
How does that work? B you own the, you buy into the franchise. But then you turn around and sell it. Now does that have to go through corporate or can you sell it for what you want? Or 

Rich Potter 13:26
Yeah. I mean, I can sell it for whatever I want. 

Rich Bennett 13:28
okay. 

Rich Potter 13:29
I used a business broker to help sell it. You do have to get corporate permission. Like essentially, like what they have to off on is whoever's buying 

Rich Bennett 13:38
it. Right. 

Rich Potter 13:39
They have to sign off on that person. And then there's usually a transfer fee involved where they're taking over. They're signing a new franchise agreement with them and all that stuff. So you have to involve them. But I mean, you can sell your own franchise. It's your business. So you can sell it. It's a sell blast. I wonder if you want. 

Rich Bennett 13:57
So wow. Okay. Wait a minute. Now you're, now you're opening my eyes up to franchising. So people can purchase a franchise granted. They have to look at the fine print, build that franchise up and turn around and sell it and make even more money. 

Rich Potter 14:18
Absolutely. Yeah. And especially that's 

Rich Bennett 14:20
smart. 

Rich Potter 14:21
In certain industries where like, like, age fag, all the trades, right? 

Rich Bennett 14:25
Like, yeah. 

Rich Potter 14:26
Humming, electrician, those of self are like incredible multiples if you, if you really build that business up. Yeah. So, 

Rich Bennett 14:33
Wow. 

Rich Potter 14:34
definitely a play that a lot of people do is they'll go in, they'll buy a business, or they'll buy a franchise, you know, they'll, they'll build it up over the next three to five years and then sell it for five, six, seven x multiple depending on the industry that you're in. 

Rich Bennett 14:48
And then start another 

Rich Potter 14:50
then start another. Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 14:52
one. And 

Rich Potter 14:52
Yeah. Well by that time they probably already started 

Rich Bennett 14:53
one. 

Rich Potter 14:54
another 

Rich Bennett 14:54
Well, I would hope so. Yeah. 

Rich Potter 14:55
They're brand stacking. They bought the H bags about the plumbing, they bought the electric, the electrician business, they build, build them up and sell them off as they go, you know. 

Rich Bennett 15:05
And hopefully they're not buying, buying another franchise. That was the same thing that they like similar to what they had before. 

Rich Potter 15:12
Yeah. What, they're gonna sign sort of like a non-compete, really. Pete with for a couple years, right? So, the, 

Rich Bennett 15:19
okay. 

Rich Potter 15:19
Sell an HVAC business and turn around and buy another one for, for a little while. 

Rich Bennett 15:23
All right. So somebody then wants to get into, what would you even call that franchise? I guess a, I don't even know what to call it. Somebody looking to buy a franchise. 

Rich Potter 15:36
Franchise, I mean, just. 

Rich Bennett 15:37
Okay. Is there certain steps, or not steps, but things they should look for when they're looking to purchase a franchise or buy into a franchise, I should say, and some things to stay away from. 

Rich Potter 15:51
Yeah. Absolutely. Um, I've been doing this for a few years now. What I do is provide a free service. 

Rich Bennett 15:59
Right. 

Rich Potter 16:00
I don't charge them anything and we'll evaluate brands together. Right. So a lot of people, what they, what they tend to do to start with is they'll just go straight to Google and they'll look up like best franchise to buy in 2016. And what you're finding is just those hot popular franchises. You know, a lot of people think franchising. So McDonald's subway. So they'll immediately contact large brands like that, thinking that that's the right play. 

Rich Bennett 16:28
Right. 

Rich Potter 16:28
There's, there's so much fine print in everything in franchising. So every franchise is required to publish a document called a franchise disclosure document with the states that they're offering franchises. And that document is a 200 250 plus page document that's written by a lawyer. And so 

Rich Bennett 16:49
you can't understand 

Rich Potter 16:50
No, 

Rich Bennett 16:50
it. 

Rich Potter 16:51
exactly. Right. So it's got so many, it's got like 23 different items in there. And it's got a den dumps and it's, 

Rich Bennett 16:56
Right. 

Rich Potter 16:57
it's a mess if you don't know what you're looking at. So, you know, I, I spend a lot of time training and learning how to read these things and what to look for. And so there's different things that you want to look for in there that, that'll be red flags, right? Like if they have any open legal cases against them, it's going to be in there. 

Rich Bennett 17:17
Oh, 

Rich Potter 17:17
Right. So, you know, you can see if they're being sued by anyone and kind of figure out why some cases, it's not a big deal. This saw a lot of cases. It is, 

Rich Bennett 17:26
right. 

Rich Potter 17:26
right? Depending on what, what, what it is, you learn about the founder in there. The item seven is a really important part because it'll tell you it'll break out the investment range. It'll tell you everything that's required to get started, who you have to pay that to, what the franchise fee is, what you're expected to pay in marketing. You know, because you are expected, you can't go in there and be like, I'm going to bootstrap this. Like, no, the franchise expects you to spend $2, 000 a month, $5, 000 a month, whatever it is on marketing. So you'll see all that broken out on the item set. So that's important. Item 19 is very important because it, it'll show earnings claims of other owners in the corporate location. And sometimes that can be misleading because it'll show that the corporate location is making all kinds of money, but they won't report what franchisees are making. Right. So you need to learn how to read that and stuff like that. Item 20 will show you closures. It'll show you like what states franchisees are in. So there is definitely a lot of stuff in there. And if you don't know what you're looking at. You know, you can, you can miss a lot of things. Also like a consultant like me, like I am constantly going to different conferences, 

Rich Bennett 18:41
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 18:41
different broker events. These franchises are flying me out to learn about their concept. Like, I know which ones I would absolutely not show my family. Right. 

Rich Bennett 18:52
Right. 

Rich Potter 18:52
And if I'm not going to show my family 

Rich Bennett 18:54
like. Why would you show all the. 

Rich Potter 18:56
Exactly right. So, but if you don't know that, if you don't tap into someone else's knowledge is like that. Like you're just, you could be shooting in the dark. You could be buying something that's just the cup into being a nightmare. So there are, there's bad franchises out there. There's great franchises out there. If you're going to alone, you know. Who knows? Who knows what's going 

Rich Bennett 19:16
to, right? 

Rich Potter 19:17
Right, so 

Rich Bennett 19:18
yeah. And where can you find that information? 

Rich Potter 19:21
The franchise disclosure document? 

Rich Bennett 19:23
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 19:23
So you have to get that from the franchise. 

Rich Bennett 19:26
From okay. 

Rich Potter 19:27
Like even myself as a consultant, like I can't really share those FDDs with my clients, but once I introduce them to the franchise, or, 

Rich Bennett 19:37
have 

Rich Potter 19:37
and 

Rich Bennett 19:37
a 

Rich Potter 19:37
they question with them, they can be disclosed. They do need a sign that they received it. Uh, FTC requires that the franchise orders get a signature that was sent over to them and that sort of thing. So, uh, I mean, there are ways on the internet. Some states make it public information that you can go, and you can pull that information yourself. 

Rich Bennett 19:55
Right. 

Rich Potter 19:55
But for the most part, you're going to get that FDD from the franchise order themselves. 

Rich Bennett 19:59
Wow. 

Rich Potter 20:00
You know. 

Rich Bennett 20:00
Holy cow, I didn't realize there was so much. So, basically, if you're going to buy a franchise, you better have a lawyer. 

Rich Potter 20:08
Well, yeah, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 20:09
yeah. And you, 

Rich Potter 20:11
and that's part of the process, too. Like, we'll start looking at different things. As soon as we start moving down a path of, we've narrowed it down to two or three, you've had a few conversations with them. You know, things are starting to look a little serious. Like, well, I'll get one of my attorneys involved. I'll make recommendations, and it's not required, but it is recommended that you have an attorney look over both the FDD and the franchise agreement 

Rich Bennett 20:35
you. 

Rich Potter 20:36
with 

Rich Bennett 20:36
Right. 

Rich Potter 20:36
So, you know what you're getting into. I mean, typically you're signing a 10-year agreement. You're agreeing to different royalties, different brand fees. Like, you're obligated to pay those for the life of the agreement. So, it's really important that you understand what it is you're signing. And a lawyer can help help with that, for sure. Like, I can, too, but a lawyer is really good idea to hire a franchise attorney to review 

Rich Bennett 21:00
it. All right, so, if you buy a franchise, and that's, I don't know. I don't even know if there's radio stations or whatever if they're a franchise. Some of them might be who knows. But a type of franchise where you have advertisers to support you. 

Rich Potter 21:20
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 21:21
Because we know corporate gets a percentage. But should whatever your advertisers are paying you, should that be disclosed to the advertisers of what goes, what's basically going back to corporate? 

Rich Potter 21:41
You 

Rich Bennett 21:41
know what 

Rich Potter 21:42
know 

Rich Bennett 21:42
you 

Rich Potter 21:42
what I mean? That's a good question. I used to own a digital media franchise as well. Oh yeah. So, I sold earlier this year with, I owned it with my brother up in the Salt Lake area and we, well, we did is install TVs inside of high traffic businesses. Restaurant, gyms, doctors, offices. People, places where people would go and stay for at least 15 minutes. They could watch those TVs and we'd sell ad space. 

Rich Bennett 22:05
So, you're meant DMV a lot. 

Rich Potter 22:08
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely right. 

Rich Bennett 22:09
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 22:10
So, I mean we didn't disclose like how much we would pay in royalties and stuff to our advertisers. But if they asked, I 

Rich Bennett 22:18
would, right. 

Rich Potter 22:19
Oh, sharing it with them. 

Rich Bennett 22:20
Okay. 

Rich Potter 22:20
But it wasn't part of our general practice to just let them know the percentage of royalty that was going back. 

Rich Bennett 22:26
And the main reason I asked is because I remember when Ripken Stadium was built here in Hartford County where I live. And Calerick is only wanted to use businesses that were here into county to do it. And people fell in love with that because it was keeping everything local. Not granted, I know a lot of that has changed throughout the years. But they knew. And I know there's other ones out there just to give you an idea. I know for a fact there's a company here where they're not even local and they have advertisers but they're they keep saying they're But they're not. But anyways, let's get away from that 

Rich Potter 23:14
local. 

Rich Bennett 23:14
amid because I go good. 

Rich Potter 23:16
Yeah. Franchise. Franchise locations are typically locally 

Rich Bennett 23:20
owned. Right. Oh, no, no. Yeah. 

Rich Potter 23:22
Sometimes, sometimes private equity gets involved or whatever, right? And they're buying, you know, states and 

Rich Bennett 23:28
buying. 

Rich Potter 23:28
they're 

Rich Bennett 23:28
Right. 

Rich Potter 23:29
But for the most part, franchise locations are locally owned by someone who 

Rich Bennett 23:34
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 23:34
live. They are paying, you know, maybe four to as much as maybe 10% royalties back to corporate. But they are, you know, 

Rich Bennett 23:44
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 23:44
their local owners local employees. You are in a way supporting local when you support a 

Rich Bennett 23:48
know my aunt had one of the biggest, I guess, Franchise orders franchise. Tries is whatever years ago. She had one of the Dunkin' Donuts. And that's when they were making the donuts inside the Dunkin' Donuts still. 

Rich Potter 24:03
franchise. I 

Rich Bennett 24:04
They don't all do that anymore. But yeah, she ended up. I think they ended up selling that off after years, but loved it. It was a great income 

Rich Potter 24:14
for them. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 24:14
All right, so when it comes to franchises because I've looked at the franchises before this is before I knew you so I didn't know what the hell is looking at. What are some of the hottest franchises right now that you recommend? 

Rich Potter 24:27
Yeah, so I would say there's two very hot industries right now that I really like. 

Rich Bennett 24:33
Mm-hmm. 

Rich Potter 24:34
One is senior care. 

Rich Bennett 24:35
Oh yeah, 

Rich Potter 24:36
You've got 12,000 people at least that are turning 65 every single day in this country. They want to stay at home, age and praise for the most part. You know, so we've got tons of franchises that do that. They help provide companionship care for seniors. And that may just be as simple as just helping them with their cooking or their cleaning or 

Rich Bennett 24:59
right. 

Rich Potter 24:59
grocery shopping. They just stuff that's hard or quite frankly now impossible for them to do on their own. 

Rich Bennett 25:05
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 25:06
You know, the average family member lives a hundred miles away from from their senior parents or grandparents. So they can't provide that care themselves. Plus they're busy. They've 

Rich Bennett 25:16
Mm-hmm. 

Rich Potter 25:16
got jobs all over. So there's franchises that help support that and they're incredible franchise. I've seen some build businesses biggest $60 million a year. My favorite franchise in the senior care space, home watch caregivers. Great franchise. They have an owner that is doing like $59 million a year with his territories. 

Rich Bennett 25:36
Wow. 

Rich Potter 25:36
Just rushing it, right? You have in that space franchises that also assist seniors into getting into assisted living facilities when they need to. So I love the senior care space. I think it's going to continue to grow. 

Rich Bennett 25:50
Absolutely. We're all getting older. 

Rich Potter 25:53
Yeah, what demand is still outpacing supply. 

Rich Bennett 25:56
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 25:57
You know, you may have a dozen different senior care franchises in your, you know, your local town. But it probably needs two dozen because it's just, there's so much demand there. The other space that I really like is home services. I don't think AI is ever going to replace your plumber, 

Rich Bennett 26:13
No. 

Rich Potter 26:14
your HVAC technician. And, and if that Tesla robot ever gets to the point where it can, you know, I think a lot of homeowners aren't going to want a robot in their house doing that they're going to want a person. So I think it's, it's AI resistant, which is huge right now. I think it's, it's the new gold rush, 

Rich Bennett 26:34
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 26:34
right? I think AI is replacing a lot of desk jobs. A lot of white color, but it's not really replacing the blue color. And so I like those blue collar businesses. 

Rich Bennett 26:45
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 26:46
HVAC plumbing. Anything around the house, in, around above roofing landscaping, artificial turf, window treatments. I mean, there's so much in that space that's really, really solid. And restoration kind of goes along with that, right? How to fire mold mitigation, that kind of stuff. SBA lenders love restoration franchises. I mean, typically you can't get an SBA loan above 150,000 for, for 10% down, it's 20 to 30% down, right? 

Rich Bennett 27:16
Right. 

Rich Potter 27:16
In the restoration space, you can borrow up to $350, 000, with only 10% down. 

Rich Bennett 27:21
Really? 

Rich Potter 27:22
Because SBA lenders love restoration businesses. There's 14,000 water jobs in this country every single day. Pipes burst in, basements flooding, like water heaters are going to write. 

Rich Bennett 27:34
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Potter 27:34
So that industry is huge. So one of my favorite franchises in the, is in the restoration space. You know, margins are in the mid 20s, net margins are in the mid 20s. It's insurance paid. You don't have to have a little price thing. Like, it's just a really good business to be And if you're okay with like the 24/7 support Like, as an owner, you're not going to get up at two o'clock in the morning, answer the phone and go out and help somebody. You can if you want. But 

Rich Bennett 28:03
that you have to put, right? 

Rich Potter 28:03
you're going to have a tech on call that answers that, goes and does that job. You just have to be okay with knowing that you're going to, the business is going to get calls 24/7, right? So to me, like, there's a ton of other industries. A lot of other stuff. I like health and wellness, beauty, you know, some food and beverage. I'm really picky about the food beverage stuff, but senior care and home services, I think, is absolutely where it is right 

Rich Bennett 28:28
now. Oh, so you were senior care. And I, because I just had a young man on whose family for generations have owned their own funeral home. But we talked about how you've seen a lot of corporations coming in buying off funeral homes. Do you know of any of those that are franchised yet? 

Rich Potter 28:53
You know, I don't know if there are. I don't have any that I represent yet. 

Rich Bennett 28:57
Okay. 

Rich Potter 28:58
But that, I mean, that's a great industry to look at. So the way what, like, what's in my inventory and what's not, right? Like, there's 4,000 franchises in the U 

Rich Bennett 29:08
Oh, 

Rich Potter 29:08
S. 

Rich Bennett 29:09
yeah. 

Rich Potter 29:09
I represent about 500 of them. I belong to the Franchise Broker's Association. Uh, Franchises can elect to join a, a broker network like my own. 

Rich Bennett 29:20
Right. 

Rich Potter 29:20
And once I join that network, I can represent any one of those. I can also go out and get independent agreements with Franchise orers that don't want to join networks but want the support of brokers. 

Rich Bennett 29:31
Okay. 

Rich Potter 29:31
Right. So, if there are, for funeral home franchises out there, I have a client that wants to look into one of those, even though it's not in my inventory, I can go find them, I can approach them and see if they're willing to work with brokers. And then I can start doing my research on that franchise and represent, uh, that franchise to my client. 

Rich Bennett 29:50
Oh, okay. 

Rich Potter 29:51
So, 

Rich Bennett 29:52
wow. So, explain this franchise hero's academy to me. 

Rich Potter 29:59
Uh, so, I, I take an approach with my clients that, um, you know, before we just started looking at brands, we want to want to look at fit. 

Rich Bennett 30:09
Mmhmm. 

Rich Potter 30:09
And so, initially it starts with a few phone calls to, to figure out the type of business that they're ideally suited for. Right. They get to figure out their goals. They're going to try to keep their job and start a business. Are they retired? Are they? You know, are they, they want to be an owner operator, they want to semi passive type thing? Um, are they looking for brick and mortar? Are they looking for a home base thing or they come from a mobile thing? So, there's so much upfront education and discovery that needs to be done before we just start pitching brands. Right. And so, like, I created that academy to kind of help people learn, um, kind of on their own. 

Rich Bennett 30:50
Right. 

Rich Potter 30:50
Um, in like a prerecorded type of classroom setting or if you will, and then help guide them through that. Like, how do you read an FDD? And how do you have those converse, how do you show up for conversations with franchisors? You know, I haven't had it myself, but I, I know another broker whose clients showed up poolside, shirt off, like two a meeting with a franchise. 

Rich Bennett 31:13
What? 

Rich Potter 31:13
Well, a he's trying to buy. We're like, all right, this is, it's kind of an interview process. 

Rich Bennett 31:19
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 31:20
They're going to award you a franchise if they want you to be a franchisee in their system. So, not only are you trying to learn about their offering and their franchise and go through your due diligence on your end, but they're due due diligence on you too. 

Rich Bennett 31:33
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 31:34
Right. And you show up to those kind of meetings, you skip meetings and don't tell them, don't reschedule. Like, that really puts you in a bad light with the franchise, and they're not going to award you a franchise like that. So, that's also part of the education is helping my clients understand how the process works and how to show up and what to expect. And so, you're not just going into this blog. 

Rich Bennett 31:55
Yeah. You definitely don't want to show up on undercover boss and have somebody from corporate company and you know, that could really hurt your franchise. Wow. You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. You know, one of the things I love most about what we do with the show and harfercannyliving.com is helping people discover great businesses not through flashy ads or gimmicks, but by building trust and creating real connections within the community. That's why we're always looking to partner with reputable businesses that went long term visibility. As a sponsor, your business can be featured across harfercannyliving, conversations with Rich Bennett, the author, pitch, and the Chesapeake podcast network through website exposure, social media promotion, podcast advertising, and more. Whether you're a local business or located anywhere, we have sponsorship opportunities designed to fit a variety of goals and budgets. In fact, some sponsorship levels started just over a dollar a day. We keep our sponsor spots limited because we believe in quality over quantity. And we only partner with businesses that share our commitment to serving their customers well. If you'd like to learn more, email me directly at richbennett@dambenn.com. That's richbennett, R-I-C-H-B-E-N-N-E-T-T@dambenn.com. d-A-N-B-E-N.com. Now let's get back to the conversation. I am getting more interested in this stuff now because I didn't realize all the different franchises out there and just looking at your website and the ones that you suggest have blown me away. There's, oh God. I saw it and I didn't realize it was a franchise. 

Where did it go? Oh, the one hour. He didn't air conditioning. I never realized that that was a franchise. I thought that was all corporate you know how 

Rich Potter 34:22
you make sense. They are the largest HVAC franchise in the US. 

Rich Bennett 34:26
Really? 

Rich Potter 34:27
They've got probably three to four hundred owners across the country. They don't have a ton of available territories anymore. 

Rich Bennett 34:35
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 34:36
But they're fantastic. I think the owner of Florida owns entire state of Florida and does like over $55 million a year in HVAC services through his business. But yeah, it's not corporate. It's it's all franchise owned. There might be one or two corporate locations. I don't remember on that one, but if there are, it's very few one maybe two locations, but yeah, they're all individually owned and operated locally right there in your town. 

Rich Bennett 35:04
Now is there a benefit to saying buying into a franchise versus starting your own business? 

Rich Potter 35:12
I personally think so. I know franchising is not going to be the right play for everybody. 

Rich Bennett 35:17
Right. 

Rich Potter 35:18
But I like the support that comes with a franchise. So let's take one hour of heating an air for example, right? Like you want to start your local HVAC business. You know, you were attacked for another company for several years. You wouldn't got your license, you know, your license. You're going to start off a business. Great. You know how to service HVAC the industry. You're going to service those those air conditioners, those heaters. But do you know how to run a business? Do you know how to do marketing? Do you know how to network at the local chamber of commerce? Like do you know all the little tiny pieces that go you'd be probably never kept boxing your life? 

Rich Bennett 35:55
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 35:56
There's so much more to it than just serving an air conditioning unit. So with the franchise, you're going to get the support of someone who has launched a successful business in their market. They have systematized the marketing, the training, the they know like all the mistakes because they've made them all. 

Rich Bennett 36:16
And 

Rich Potter 36:17
they they've hired business coaches, marketing directors, they've hired social media managers, they've hired like a department head for every aspect of your business that you. 

Rich Bennett 36:28
Right. 

Rich Potter 36:29
Relearn from it. It's a business and a box in that it comes with all of the training, all of the support that you need to to educate yourself to learn how to launch a successful business. So you can try to figure it out yourself. You can join all the Facebook groups and you can watch all the YouTube and like maybe you'll be successful, maybe you won't. It's less than 17% of businesses that are startups that last five years. 

Rich Bennett 36:57
Okay. See 

Rich Potter 36:58
it's over 80% of franchises that last five years. 

Rich Bennett 37:02
So I guess you probably see especially when it comes to the trades like HVAC, electric electrical and all that. I guess you probably do see a lot of people that buy into a franchise and then after a while sell it off and then start the room business. You think because with the franchise, too, can you join the union? 

Rich Potter 37:25
I don't know. I'm Arizona's not a union state. 

Rich Bennett 37:28
Okay. 

Rich Potter 37:28
I don't know much about union. So I don't know that. 

Rich Bennett 37:32
Okay. 

Rich Potter 37:33
I would it would be probably can. I'm not sure. Like those franchise agreements, so they're going to have non-compeats again. So you can't just start a plumbing business. 

Rich Bennett 37:42
Okay. 

Rich Potter 37:43
Guys, sell it and then immediately just start up your own plumbing. 

Rich Bennett 37:46
Right. 

Rich Potter 37:47
You'll have to wait the two years typically. I think it is before you start up your own business to compete with. 

Rich Bennett 37:52
Okay. 

Rich Potter 37:52
Right. And typically like whoever is buying that business from you is going to make you sign a pretty similar agreement too. They don't want you immediately competing with them. So I haven't seen personally myself. I mean, I've only been in the consulting space for three years. 

Rich Bennett 38:06
Okay. 

Rich Potter 38:07
So like I haven't, I probably haven't placed enough people to see them 

Rich Bennett 38:10
it. It's 

Rich Potter 38:11
sell 

Rich Bennett 38:11
probably different state to state too. 

Rich Potter 38:13
Yeah, absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 38:14
Yeah. Because I do know, like here at Maryland, I forget how many different locals there are, just in the electricians union. And I know that we have HVAC union. God. We used to have a steel workers union, but then Bethlehem's steel shut down. I don't even know if that's a thing anymore. 

Rich Potter 38:37
I do see a lot of people brand-stacking. Right. Like they'll add one business and then they'll add they'll buy into another franchise that's kind of complimentary. And then they'll buy 

Rich Bennett 38:46
Look. 

Rich Potter 38:46
another franchise is kind of complement. So even though they've learned how to run a business, and they'll still, they believe in the franchise structure. 

Rich Bennett 38:55
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 38:55
They'll buy another franchise in a couple of different franchises. So typically, like people who like franchising will stay in franchising even when they buy another brand. 

Rich Bennett 39:07
So how hard is it for a bit? And I'm thinking of a local restaurant here, I've got a good school with who has my God. Four or five, four or five restaurants, all the same name or close to it. 

Rich Potter 39:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:24
How hard is it for somebody to start their own franchise? It's... 

Rich Potter 39:29
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:29
You knew that. 

Rich Potter 39:45
That helps with that. So it's typically, you know, a $65, $70, 000 investment to do something like that, to get your FDD written by our lawyer. Then you get into 12 different franchise shows across the country, to show your, you know, you're offering. But we help with everything, like, we create landing pages, websites, operations, manuals, all that stuff. And then we even help sell them when we're done. But it's a four to six month process to get your business set up, franchising. I think for a lot of people it's a great way to expand. 

Rich Bennett 40:24
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 40:24
For him, he's got four locations. It's probably really hard for him to go open up a location in Texas, or, you know, Arizona or California. And he may want to. He may want his restaurant all across the country. 

Rich Bennett 40:36
Mm-hmm, 

Rich Potter 40:36
I think one of the easiest ways to do that is to franchise it. And rather than hiring managers, regional directors, whatever, like you're selling to owners who put their own money in, their blood, sweat and tears. They love it. They they're all in, right? 

Rich Bennett 40:54
right. 

Rich Potter 40:54
They're not getting, they're not going to quit on you, you know, six months in. So I think expanding nationwide through franchising is a smart move for a lot of owners, provided that their corporate location is successful and making money and they've got everything dialed down. 

Rich Bennett 41:11
Okay, 

Rich Potter 41:11
you know, you've been in business a year and you know, you're making $25, 000 a year profit. Like you're not ready for franchise. 

Rich Bennett 41:17
now, now, 

Rich Potter 41:18
Like you can't sell that to anybody, you know, but if you've got a great roofing business and you're doing 10 million dollars a year and you know how to market and you know how to network and you've got that dialed down. Yeah, you might be in a really good position to to franchise that. It's sell that nationwide. 

Rich Bennett 41:35
Roofing, I never thought about that. Wow. So what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about franchises? Besides the fact I think that when we already covered about they're not about not being local, but it's still a local owner and local employees. 

Rich Potter 41:54
Yeah, and then you kind of brought it up to like that you can sell it. That it is your 

Rich Bennett 41:58
Right. 

Rich Potter 41:58
business. It's a sellable asset. Like as a franchise, you're buying the rights to their name 

Rich Bennett 42:04
Right. 

Rich Potter 42:04
and their training and their support, right, but it is still your business. So that would be one like you have like the like the Chick-fil-A factor. I think two where a lot of people want to buy Chick-fil-A because they're crazy busy they make money but Chick-fil-A is not a true franchise model. So Chick-fil-A, you're paying $10, 000, basically to become a glorified general manager. Chick-fil-A will pay for the building. Chick-fil-A expects you to run that store. You can't hire a manager to run a for you. 

Rich Bennett 42:41
Oh, 

Rich Potter 42:41
You're expected to work in it 50, 60 hours a week. You can't buy a second location. You can't will it to your kids. 

Rich Bennett 42:52
oh, wow. 

Rich Potter 42:52
You're spous. You can't sell it. If and when you're done, you give it back to corporate. So it's not a true franchise agreement. You're just a really highly paid manager. And if that's what you want, like that's great. But just don't be deceiving it. It's... 

Rich Bennett 43:09
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 43:09
Hunership. Because it's really not. And there's a two to five year waiting period. They take less than 2% of applicants to even start conversations with. So there's that side of it. And then you have the big names that you think you want to go buy McDonald's. 

Rich Bennett 43:26
Right. 

Rich Potter 43:27
McDonald's is a $2 million investment. 

Rich Bennett 43:30
If 

Rich Potter 43:31
you're not already an existing franchisee, it's really hard to get in. It's almost a 10-year wait. They want existing franchisees to be opening up new locations instead of new ones. 

Rich Bennett 43:42
Right. 

Rich Potter 43:42
You're going to drop $2 million to open this thing. And you're lucky if you make $90, 000 profit per location. 

Rich Bennett 43:49
Wow. 

Rich Potter 43:51
It's a terrible investment. Like Subway, half a million dollars, you're lucky to make $45, 000 profit a year. Terrible investment. Right. Those youth will be good. And part of Subway too is there's no territory protection. And so again it goes back to understanding the FDB. Subway can sell to another franchisee directly across the street from you. 

Rich Bennett 44:14
No! 

Rich Potter 44:15
there's no like you have to open up two miles away or five miles away like you can open literally across the street and it's always going to sell that location. 

Rich Bennett 44:24
That's messed up, 

Rich Potter 44:25
So I mean somebody had I think like 350 closures last year or something like that, 

Rich Bennett 44:29
yeah. 

Rich Potter 44:29
none. So you think like all these big brands like that's what I want to do. Like so that I think a big misconception is like brand chasing. Because there's thousands of them across the country that's a good investment. And and a lot of times it's not. So you know there's so much so much research and this stuff you need to look at that you know you probably don't think about it unless you're in an industry and you do it every day. 

Rich Bennett 44:57
Holy cow, I didn't realize that. So even if you buy certain franchises your hands are still tied. 

Rich Potter 45:06
Yeah, yeah. And the bigger ones like a McDonald's, like a subway you have zero flexibility to do anything other than what they tell you to do. You know, you have to make the hamburgers the exact way that you're told you have 

Rich Bennett 45:18
yeah. 

Rich Potter 45:19
every single process exactly the way it is, right? Now if you bought you know say a landscaping business here in Phoenix, 

Rich Bennett 45:27
And 

Rich Potter 45:27
you know, like you you have the option like I want to offer artificial turf installation. Where like you know where you are like you're not going to offer that we own the same brand. We're doing the same thing but I decided to offer a different service than you are. You have some flexibility in like some of those types of brands and even like with the smaller ones, you know more flexibility than others. So understanding how much flexibility you have before you buy in is also an important thing. 

Rich Bennett 45:58
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 45:58
So do high. Some brands are not going to allow you to do anything other than what they tell you. Some brands are like we would love to hear your ideas. Let's let's collaborate. If you've got an idea like let's test it out, you know maybe you're going to test it out in your market, we'll test it out in our market. If it works, we'll roll it out corporate way. And so you have more of a voice in those smaller, you know and I'm talking even like ones that have 200 owners 

Rich Bennett 46:22
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 46:22
like you have a voice in some of those as well. 

Rich Bennett 46:24
Holy cow. All right so since you started with your first franchise, what's some of the biggest things that you've learned since you started? 

Rich Potter 46:38
I think well a couple so leaning on corporate for training. 

Rich Bennett 46:46
It 

Rich Potter 46:46
is huge right a lot of people will buy in, they'll do their one week training at corporate and they think they've got to 

Rich Bennett 46:52
figure out. Oh jeez. 

Rich Potter 46:54
Lean into the your business coach, you know if he or she's not scheduling weekly calls with you like schedule with them. Pick their brain like for as long as you can ride that training, I mean you're paying for it. You pay for it the franchise fee. 

Rich Bennett 47:09
Yeah 

Rich Potter 47:10
for the royalties so like use every inch of it. And then also I've learned that making sure you have enough either working capital right, make sure you have enough runway with your money to be able to hit profitability. So in the franchise, disclose your document, investment range, it'll it'll basically say like how much cash you need on hand to run your business for three months. great, 

Rich Bennett 47:36
That's 

Rich Potter 47:36
but are you being profitable in three months? 

Rich Bennett 47:38
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 47:39
Probably not. Right so like let's make sure we have money in the bank to run the business for at least 12 months. Like hopefully we're in profitability six or nine or whatever right. But like let's make sure there's enough cash there so we have enough runway to spend marketing dollars to not to be able to you know pay myself with that money if needed. But that's one place I see people not planning appropriately. It's just making sure enough cash on hand. You know I I personal I'm not opposed to borrowing money for something like this you know the the government set up great programs through the SBA to get to get funding 10 20% down you know use the bank's money to launch it to build it. I'm not opposed to that. I think it's a great a great option for a lot of people. You can also use your 401K funds to do it too 

Rich Bennett 48:32
Right. 

Rich Potter 48:33
which is also great. You got great tax benefits. You're not there's no early withdrawal penalties or anything like that. You just need to set up the business correctly. You have to set it up as a C-Corp instead of an LLC and then you'll create a 401k fund under that C-Corp then you'll self-direct from where it is into your business and then you're allowed to legally take withdraws for any business related expense to pay yourself pay your salaries to pay for equipment to franchise anything and you're not taxed on it as if you were taking like an early withdrawal from your 401K. 

Rich Bennett 49:09
Wow. 

Rich Potter 49:09
A lot of cool benefits that you can kind of tap into your own money so you're not borrowing someone else's. 

Rich Bennett 49:16
As a veteran, and I don't know if this would be discrimination or not. I never even thought about that. But do you know if there are any franchises out there designed and specifically for veterans to start in noon? Why? 

Rich Potter 49:41
Franchises love veterans and there is a disproportionately high number of veteran owners of franchises. Um, as a veteran, you learn how to follow systems. 

Rich Bennett 49:53
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 49:53
You know, you're typically highly successful people. Um, and so franchises love them and they also offer discounts. Most of them do offer discounts on the franchise fees and someone can be pretty significant. Like, um, I think it's authority brands. They have 12 different franchises under their umbrella, they offer like a 25% discount on their franchise fee. 

Rich Bennett 50:15
Wow. 

Rich Potter 50:15
Ah, so in many cases, that's more $10, 000 off the franchise fee just because you're a veteran. So a lot of great programs for veterans, lending programs, but I think franchises are just innately built well for veterans to run. 

Rich Bennett 50:32
Yeah. Oh, man. That's okay. So now I am going to have to look into more of these now. Okay. Um, so the very important. Where can people find you so they can say, call you up and say, hey, Rich, need a franchise. I need to take the quiz. What do I do? 

Rich Potter 50:53
Yeah. The franchise heroes.co is my website, not calm. So franchise heroes.co. And then I'm on Facebook. Or I'm, I'm sorry. I'm on LinkedIn. 

Rich Bennett 51:03
Right. 

Rich Potter 51:04
So Rich Potter LinkedIn. Um, those are probably the two easiest ways to get all them in. 

Rich Bennett 51:09
All right. So when are you going to write a book about all this? 

Rich Potter 51:12
That's a great question. I, you know, I keep getting told I need to write a book. 

Rich Bennett 51:17
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 51:17
About, about my story or about you know, whatever. But I don't know. I don't know. It's a good idea. 

Rich Bennett 51:23
Sort of like a memoir slash guidebook or maybe two separate books, a memoir and then a guide book. Because I mean, I, in all honesty, I never heard of a franchise broker until you. I didn't know it was a thing. Hell, you can start your own franchise. 

Just an idea, Rich. I'm just saying man. All right. So before I get to my last question. Is there anything you would like to add? And I know there's a lot more we could cover 

Rich Potter 51:57
man. They're really, is there so much and we've only covered a couple of industries. I represent 37 different industries. 

Rich Bennett 52:06
30s. 

Rich Potter 52:06
And not, yeah, and not everything that I represent is a franchise. So some of them are classified differently as like business opportunities, 

Rich Bennett 52:13
Oh 

Rich Potter 52:14
right. So like a vending machine business, it's set up as kind of like a franchise, the support, the training, but it's your own business. It's a business opportunity. So it's regulated differently by the the FTC. You don't have to pay royalties. There's no ongoing royalty payments that you're paying to the franchise or when you start a vending machine business. I have others that are somewhat like that, like a medical billing business, not a franchise, no ongoing work. Medical staffing. I have a medical staffing one that's also a business opportunity in not a franchise. So different people are going to fit into different things. And that's all part of the discovery that we do on our first couple of calls is to figure out where you fit Right. I even have an opportunity that's a business launch partnership. So it's a firm that helps people launch businesses. And so instead of like buying into a franchise, they're going to do for the first 12 months, they're going to do a very significant portion of your business. They're going to set up training hiring launch. They're going to evaluate your market, see where the saturation points are, what businesses you shouldn't start, where your skills line up with different businesses. They'll make several recommendations based on you your skills and your market. And then if you decide to work with them. Typically they want professionals that want to keep their job and are willing to pay for the leverage of a firm to launch and start their business for them. So the first 90 days, they're almost going to do everything for you. They're going to set up your LLC your bank account, your EIN. They're going to hire or they're going to and they're really good at 

Rich Bennett 53:55
contract. 

Rich Potter 53:56
like 

Rich Bennett 53:56
Figure 

Rich Potter 53:56
government 

Rich Bennett 53:56
away the headaches. 

Rich Potter 53:57
So you take away a lot of the headaches, yeah, when they're going to put staff in place to run your business, they also have I think they're at 15 different AI agents that they plug into your business from day one. 

Rich Bennett 54:09
Wow. 

Rich Potter 54:09
You know, your receptionist, your sales partner, like all these AI agents that are going to help build your business for you and answer your phone calls and 

Rich Bennett 54:16
Right. 

Rich Potter 54:17
kind of do all that stuff. That's a great option for that professional who wants to launch a business, wants to pay for leverage that doesn't want to quit their job. They love it or they're not ready. And so in the background, this company is going to help build it for the first 12 months. Now there are options for you to extend their support for an additional 12 months after that if you want. You are expected to be like the visionary of the business kind of helps set the tone and direction, but they're going to be your implementers and they're going to do the hiring and some of that background stuff. So that's an option for people too that don't want to buy into a franchise, and this you maintain 100% equity. It is your brand, your name. If down the road, you want to sell it, do it if you want to franchise it down the road, franchise it, but there really a launch partner that focuses on the front in 12 months to get you launched and profitably operating to hopefully where by month 12, you're either extending with them or you're then like 

Rich Bennett 55:19
into 

Rich Potter 55:19
moving 

Rich Bennett 55:20
right 

Rich Potter 55:20
operations manager type of role with So 

Rich Bennett 55:23
it. 

Rich Potter 55:24
I get lots of different options for all kinds of different people, you know. 

Rich Bennett 55:28
So I thought you only did franchisees. I had because I know there's a ton of business opportunities out there that people are missing as well. Actually, what is one of the biggest ones that people are missing business opportunities? I know Venti Machines are still a big thing. 

Rich Potter 55:46
y. So I like Venti 

Rich Bennett 55:47
Yeah, 

Rich Potter 55:47
Machines. I'm actually so I'm going to start launching a Venti machine business and basically doing it with and for my children. So I got I got three girls, and so we're going to start building up three different routes of Venti Machines that each one of my kids are going to kind of run sooner or old enough, like I'll transfer the official ownership into their name. But they're going to help refill it, they're going to help stock it. They don't have to go foot burgers and, you know, go get a job, like I'm going to teach them to how to launch a business. I think Venti is still 

Rich Bennett 56:19
corner. 

Rich Potter 56:19
in the 

Rich Bennett 56:19
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Potter 56:20
Especially with the new AI cooler machines. 

Rich Bennett 56:24
Huh? 

Rich Potter 56:24
So that the industry is moving away from the coil coin collected cash collective machines and moving into these AI coolers that are cashless you know, tap your phone, tap your credit card. 

Rich Bennett 56:39
Okay, 

Rich Potter 56:39
you can open the cooler and you can grab multiple items at once versus like dispensing one at a time through the old fashioned coils. So I have a franchise that or a self franchise, the business opportunity that does that helps you set up anywhere from 10 to 20 machines to start. They do location services for you to help you find all the locations. They either do it for you or with you, depending on which option you pick. But yeah, Venti is great and I got a real estate, a real estate flipping business opportunity that uses their investors, their money, they teach you out of wholesale, fix and flip. 

Rich Bennett 57:15
That's a big business. 

Rich Potter 57:16
So that's that's kind of a cool one out there. There's there's so much really like if I think I have a solution for most people. 

Rich Bennett 57:25
Yeah. 

Rich Potter 57:26
We just we just need to get together and spend some time and discovery and whether whether your budget is $15, 000. I have a event type of business that puts up signs and people's yards. 

Rich Bennett 57:40
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Potter 57:41
Happy birthday. You know, congratulations. You can get into that franchise for 15 grand. So I have stuff for people with a $15, 000 budget and I have multiple territory, you know, regional direct light. I have got franchises that you can buy the whole state. Right. You can buy 20, 30, 50 locations if you want. 

Rich Bennett 58:02
Wow. 

Rich Potter 58:02
Right. So we've got and everything in between. So, you know, I've got a solution for most people. If you know, just give me a chance to spend a couple of a couple of days with you learning about you, your budget, your goals. You know, like we'll find some together. 

Rich Bennett 58:17
Holy cow, I didn't realize all of that. And with Vending machines, especially, I remember now I'm going back some time, but my best friend he lives in Italy now. He was one of the first ones in the country that have the DVD vendor machines. 

Rich Potter 58:36
Mm, 

Rich Bennett 58:36
before Red Box and all the other ones, he had his own who was going around to all the different states, put them into place and it was actually it was a company in Italy. I think he said it was building them. 

Alright, so, Rich, I need you to pick a, pick a number between one and five. 

Rich Potter 59:08
Let's go, let's go four. 

Rich Bennett 59:13
Alright, now I need you to pick a number between 61 and 80. 

Rich Potter 59:23
72. 

Rich Bennett 59:24
72. Alright, this is the latest question. I've 

got to change these questions around because somebody has picked this one before, but I'm sorry. It's a fun one. If you could witness any historical event firsthand, which one would it be and why? 

Rich Potter 59:51
I've never thought about that. I think it'd be super cool to go back and watch, like, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Right, like just the, the founding of our country, that'd be cool. Like, like, meet those people. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:06
Uh-huh. 

Rich Potter 1:00:07
Shake hands with them, like, you know, I think that would, that would be cool event to go, to go witness. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:13
You know, if you ever look at, you, you ever look at the drawings of that, there's something missing from all of them, because you knew those guys were drinking ale or something, they had to be. 

Rich Potter 1:00:28
I got this like ours and 

Rich Bennett 1:00:29
whiskey and the, 

Rich Potter 1:00:29
the 

Rich Bennett 1:00:29
yeah. Hey, we all sign, let's do it. So of course, John Hancock has the biggest glass. Go figure. 

Rich Potter 1:00:37
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:39
Rich, tell everybody the website again. 

Rich Potter 1:00:41
Yeah, Seroes dot com. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:44
Rich, I want to thank you, man. And if you start that podcast, 

Rich Potter 1:00:50
to Dixon Mike. Let's do it. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:52
you 

Rich Potter 1:00:53
You 

Rich Bennett 1:00:53
go 

Rich Potter 1:00:53
and I can do it. We can do it together. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:55
Uh-uh. 

Rich Potter 1:00:59
Never 

Rich Bennett 1:01:00
mind. 

Rich Potter 1:01:02
It's been a great time. Thanks for having me on. Love it. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:06
I have to admit, before this conversation, I thought franchising was basically fast food, convenience stores, and maybe a gym or two. It was not really big on franchises at all. I had no idea how many different opportunities were out there or how much strategy goes into finding the right fit. What really stood out to me is that franchising isn't about buying yourself a job. It's about finding a business model that matches your goals, your lifestyle, and where you want your future to go. And I also appreciate that Rich's approach isn't about pushing one particular franchise. It's about helping people ask the right questions before making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives. Rich and I talked after the show about certain types of franchises, ones to stay away from what's good, well, we really covered the good ones during the recording, but mainly the ones that type the stay away from, and well, that may be another conversation, but you can always reach out to me if you'd like to know which ones to stay away from. Whether someone is thinking about leaving corporate America, looking to diversify their income, considering business ownership for the first time or even wondering if their own successful business could become a franchise someday, I think today's conversation gave them a lot to think about. If you'd like to learn more about Rich, explore the different franchise and business opportunities he works with, or even take the first step towards finding out what might be the right fit for you. Visit franchiseheros.co. You're right.co. Now.com. And I'll make sure there's a link in the show notes so you can connect with them directly. Rich, thank you so much for coming on the show, sharing your story, pulling back the curtain on the world of franchising, and giving us an honest look at what business ownership can really look like. I have a feeling this conversation is going to inspire more than a few listeners to start asking themselves what's possible. And to everyone listening, remember this, sometimes the biggest opportunities aren't the ones everyone is talking about. Third are ones you discover when you're willing to ask questions. Keep learning and stay open to a different path. Until next time, stay positive, keep supporting local when you can, and always remember to join the conversation.