Episode 342: Scaling Businesses with Beers (Brian Beers)

Welcome to another episode of the Above the Business podcast. My name is Bradley Hamner, your host. On today's episode, we have Brian Beers. He's a dynamic entrepreneur, podcast host, and proud father. Over the last few years, Brian and his brother have scaled their franchise auto repair business from 6 to 33 locations, doing over $40 million a year in revenue. I connected with Brian on Twitter, there's a really active small business space on Twitter that I really like. I'm not very active at all on social media, but Twitter is one that I do like. And so Brian was one that I began to follow, and I think you're going to get a ton out of this. So even if you are not interested in franchises as something that you want to personally make an investment in, you're going to be able to learn some ways of thinking from Brian that I think you'll be able to apply back to your business. So whether you are looking at getting into the franchise space or you just simply want to scale your business to multiple locations, this episode is for you. Brian Beers, welcome to the Above the Business podcast.

Hey, well, thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

So we always start with background and origin stories. So why don't you take our listeners back and kind of give them how you got to where you are today? Day?

Yeah, sure. So, so where I'm at today, I'll start where I'm at today. Today, you know, my brother and I, we run over, you know, we have 33 automotive repair franchises that did over $40 million in 2023. And our goal is to do over $50 million here in '24. We also have a— we just launched a painting franchise that we're going to build from zero, you know, as a franchisee. All this stuff's franchisee that we believe we can get to, you know, a $10 to $15 million a year business. Within, within probably 2 to 3 years. I'm also like a minority partner in a bunch of franchisees where I have really good operators in place. And I, you know, I've got a podcast, I'm on Twitter, I talk a lot about just educating people about, you know, the, the business that is possible to build through owning and operating franchises. And so how I got here today was, you know, my family's been in franchising since the '70s. My dad got started you know, in, in an automotive repair franchise, you know, when he was 22 years old, had one, kind of built it up to 6 or 7, bought and sold a few along the way with my uncle. And then, you know, did that for 30 years, was ready to sell, get out. Like the business had changed a lot. It wasn't really making any money and just, just, you know, near retirement, just tired. I joined the business after college and, you know, said, hey, let me see if I can breathe some new life into this thing. So I joined, travel around the country, try to learn best practices from other franchisees, which is You know, there's just a community aspect that's really strong and, you know, in the good brands and put those things into place, started having success, you know, did that for 6 years, said, hey, I want to make more money. So I, you know, went out and got a loan with my brother and, you know, we bought more of the same franchise like in that, in that industry. And then all the money we made in those 2, we just rolled, you know, rolled to buy another 2, another 1. Eventually we bought a group of 7, a group of 5, a group of 4, a group of you know, like whatever, ones and twos. And, you know, eventually bought our kind of dad and uncle out. And so that's where we're at today. And so anyhow, it's been, you know, it's been a journey from— and we've done it all from opening new locations, acquiring, you know, starting new franchises. I mean, I got out of franchises and other brands that I failed in too. So like, I've seen it all.

So yeah, yeah. You know, that we actually connected on Twitter is actually how we found it. There's a SMB small business space is pretty active in the Twittersphere for sure. And so I loved seeing your stuff. And so, you know, my personal thesis of growing the business is around operating system. And that's one of the things, the reason I have been interested in learning personally about franchises and the value of franchises is because I feel like that you're buying an embedded operating system, a way of doing things— marketing, sales, team recruitment, etc. All of those type of things. And we're gonna get— I'm going to ask you some questions specifically around franchises. But before we get there, I want to talk about a topic that, um, has come up a lot in our community recently, the last few months, is around buying business acquisition entrepreneurship. There's a lot of businesses out there that, uh, are in the hands of baby boomers. And they're going to be a major transfer of not just wealth, but also businesses in the next decade. If somebody has never done that, they want to begin, where do they even start? What's the 101 level?

Well, I mean, I can speak to it from a, I guess, a franchise perspective, right? Because I've never bought like an independent. I've bought a lot of businesses from baby boomers. I could tell you that. And so I've talked to a lot of guys who are in that space, right? They're looking to find it. Usually what I hear is they're so frustrated. They spend a year and it's like they want to get in the game, right? Or they're like, you know, they're not at the top of that, that business broker's like Rolodex. So they don't— they're getting all the stuff that everybody else already passed on. And so a lot of times there's people like in that, you know, in that kind of that cycle like start to learn about franchising and then that gets them attracted. Say, I just want to get in the game and then like, I'll figure it out. And so, you know, the cool thing about once you're a franchisee is that franchisees want to sell to other franchisees. It's, it's like the easiest process to do, right? Because like, you know, as a franchisee, when I look at somebody else, another, you know, Midas Shop, right, the brand that we're part of, you know, I mean, I don't even have to visit it and I know everything that I need to know about it, right? I know what the sales are. You know, I know the location and I know that location kind of fits the profile of my stores that are successful. I need to know what the rent is. I know it needs to have a good lease, but like, I want to know about the employees. But like everything else, like I'm— I have all my own, like, cost structure around, you know, insurance and utilities and phones and like— and we know that like when we go to a store, like we're going to put in our systems that are going to get us, you know, a certain amount of results. And so, you know, when I go to buy another existing franchise, like, I don't ask for tax returns. I don't like— I mean, I literally have bought multiple locations without visiting them because we've done it so many times and because it's just like rinse and repeat. And so because that process is just so easy, like somebody who's looking to sell, like, would you rather sell to me who like maybe I'm not going to want probably a deal and and everything, but like the process is super simple, right? And I'm already approved by the franchisor and like we have a relationship. They already know me, like they see me at the meetings. You know, I obviously have an elevated presence with Twitter and LinkedIn, which helps, like, and anybody could do that. Or, you know, you listen on a, on a website and then they get it with the broker. Now you got this risk of the employees finding out and like they're going to ask all these questions because, you know, they don't know the business, so they got to learn it and they're going to question like every expense and all the add backs and Right. It just becomes this like process that, you know, this, the buyers have to do, like you totally have to do that. But then for the seller can become pretty draining. And you know, in the franchise space there's a wide range of what people, the level that they play at. And there are a lot of people who, you know, buy a single unit franchise and it's a job, right? And they work it every single day and, you know, it can be a great job for them. And, and so for that single person, they got to be able to sell it to somebody else who wants a job, right? Or buys it and then puts a manager in place. But then that manager, you know, is probably going to take a pretty, a pretty nice chunk, you know, out of that, that profitability. Um, when they sell to me though, like, you know, I'm not buying somebody's job even if they're an owner-operator. Like, I'm immediately going to put a manager in there. And like, you know, it's, it's a— like, I play at a different level. And so It's just easier, right? Everything's just easier with me. And that's like— and that's a platform that we built that anybody can build within a franchise system. And so, you know, what I advise people on is like some people say, hey, why, why want to buy a franchise? Like, I want to do the ETA, but with a franchise. But you have the same— this is— it's like the same issue that like none of the franchise, none of the good ones at least hit the market. None of them hit brokers. Like you're not going to know about any of them because as soon as that's for sale, like the local franchisees are going to be like sharks and want to buy it. Now, there are cases where, you know, it's— they're good franchises and that's— that doesn't happen for multiple reasons. But like, it's, it's so hard to get in. So what we advise people on and what we help people through is, hey, we'll find a brand that you like no matter what. You got to like the brand. Then like, just buy one location, then your foot's in the door. You're now a member of the the country club. And now you can build those relationships. And now, like, like instead of buy, you know, buy then build, it's like build and buy where you then, you know, can go and you can, you can work it all up. And so I think that strategy is really good. I mean, that's one that I've, you know, even with the painting business that we just, we just got into, you know, and it's an emerging brand. There's a lot of new franchisees. You know, not everybody who buys a franchise makes it. You know, it's not everybody's cut out to operate a business. And so I know even in that, you know, new brand, like there will be opportunities for me to do acquisitions. And, you know, I will be, you know, people know that, like, you know, you're a good performer and you're good on your word and all this stuff. Like, there will be opportunities in that brand for me to acquire.

So you made a comment that you're playing at a different level, and that's exactly why I wanted to have you on the podcast is because to talk about that level that you're at. So when you're viewing some of these opportunities, I want to ask just a few handful of questions and you can kind of nibble around it, what you can share, what you can't share. But typically, like, number one, do you have the whole thing? I think you said 33 locations, 33 stores. Do you have all of that set up in a whole code? That's one question I have. And maybe you can even educate our audience if you, how you have that structured. Number two, What do the multiples look like? Are you typically in a range, or is that a pretty tight range, or is that because, you know, different locations literally are more valuable? And so therefore, maybe you're— is that typically going to be of SDE, EBITDA, revenue? Is that typically what that looks like? And then number 3, you immediately said something you immediately put a manager in there. And I think that that's something that I want to hear a little bit more is you are not operating. You're the owner. You're not the operator of that particular franchise. You know, it's one thing I love Chick-fil-A down here in the South. And so I always see on the sign, it says so-and-so, Brian, owner-operator, right? It says that. I'm like, oh, I don't want to be the operator. I don't want to run the thing. I want to own it. But Tell me about that.

Yep. Yeah. Awesome. So yeah, I'll start. Yeah. From a structure standpoint, I mean, ours are— we have, we have S corps, we have multiple S corps that hold different groups of stores. For us, we do it based on market. We have some in different states. So like the state is like has its own thing from tax return, you know, simplicity. And yeah, we have all those roll up into a holdco. That's for the operating companies. We have other— we have another holdco structure for you know, real estate that we own, minority partnership and other brands that, you know, we're partners on. So yeah, like, and then even from that, like, we have a management company that, you know, so all the, like, the office people and the— we have, we have a whole team in the Philippines and like, you know, district managers and CEO, like all that is— we have all that of a management company that makes it easy. And then we've got, you know, each, each location entity, you know, pays into that management company. And so the management company is like a break-even deal, but it helps simplify our books rather than, I don't know, you've got like, you know, two different entities and you've got like a district manager that oversees like 6 stores in this entity and like 2 stores in this entity. And how do you like, how do you prorate costs? And we just say, okay, everybody pays $5,000 a month or whatever into the management company, and then that's got all of it. And so that's like pretty common in like from some of my friends do that have similar sized companies in how they structure that as it builds in terms of the multiples and like how we structure these things. Yeah, I mean, it's total range, right? It's just like buying anything else where, you know, the more, you know, the more valuable we think it is like that, the more we're going to pay. I mean, I'll give you a couple examples. So like, you know, we bought a store doing— making about $100 grand doing for, for, 3.5 times. So we paid $350,000 for it, but it was owner-financed. We put $50,000 down. We had a $300,000 note that had a 10-year amortization but a 5-year balloon. So he got his payments of $3,200 a month, whatever it was. And then, you know, the 5-year came due. We owed him whatever, $160,000 or whatever it was. That store. So we took, you know, we're in it for $50,000. We get in there like a lot of times we renovate these things because, you know, they're tired and like, you know, the layout's all funky and, you know, whatever. So we kind of have our, like, you know, our flavor. And that's the thing about franchising too. And it all depends. There's a huge variance in the spectrum of control. A Chick-fil-A, very tight control. Every store is going to be exactly the same. You know, automotive, like because of like all the different cars and all the different things, like we have a much wider range of control, right? That, that that, that we can do. And so, you know, I view my business as like I run auto repair shops that just happen to be a Midas, right? And the Midas helps with, with marketing. Obviously we have a brand that people recognize, but like I have a ton of flexibility and there's a ton of flexibility in how you lay out your stores, what equipment you buy. Like, you know, all this stuff where in Chick-fil-A, like everybody's got the same fryer, right? Everybody has the same grill. In automotive, it is, it is You can buy any— you can buy anything, right? As long as, like, from a customer experience standpoint, it's, you know, it's similar, right?

Yeah.

So that being said, we, you know, sometimes we go into these stores that are completely— don't fit our model. We put in our— we put in our thing. And so, you know, that store, we probably put in another $50 grand of CapEx in the first 60 days of rearranging lifts, painting, new LED lights, like tire racking, like whatever, all of our stuff. And in that store, like, we got a whole new team in there because none of the guys wanted to follow the way we want it done. And we doubled the sales in the first year. We did, we did over $2 million. We made like $400 grand. I think that the next year on a $50,000 cash investment. So $100K after things. So we, we got, we made $400K. And so pretty, pretty solid return. And that store's consistently performed at that level since, since we bought it. You know, I've had other stores that was 3.5 times, but owner financed. You know, I had another, another deal where it was just these two stores were doing about $2 million, about $1 million each in revenue, but she was only making like 5%. So I think it was like $100 grand of SDE on $2 million. Right. Which are really thin margins. Like that store should have been making at least double, at least 10%, kind of at that, that level. And so, you know, she was stuck on wanting $500,000. On this thing, which was a 5x, right, on $100,000. But we kind of knew that, like, listen, the margins aren't good. Like, this thing should be making $200,000, you know? And we know if we just don't even increase the sales, we just fix margins, that, you know, it's a 2.5x. And then we can— whatever, we can do that. Same thing, owner finance, $50,000 down, higher, $4,000 a month, whatever it is. When we go in there, same exact thing. Here's like Here's the new pay plans that are performance-based. Here's like, we're going to fix all this broken stuff. Your computers are from 2000. We're going to get you all new computers and voiceover IP phones and we're going to do some marketing, direct mail. Same thing, one of those stores, we literally doubled the sales overnight. That store now probably makes $30,000 a month, making like $8,000 a month prior or $4,000 a month with the same exact team too. Just, just we re-energize them, right? And so like in the other store was actually the exact opposite. Everybody quit and it took us like 6 months to find new staff, get them trained. Like we're finally making money. It's almost 9 months in and that store is finally making money. So you don't ever really know what you're going to get. But, you know, when I look at the multiples, I kind of just know, like, you know, I have to— I look at the whole situation. It's not, hey, I only pay 2.5, like that other store paid 5. Probably would have paid more. And, you know, how, how involved is the owner? If the owner is there every single day and they're the manager and they do really well, like, I know that whoever I put in there is not going to do as well as the owner if they do really well, right? Like, there's an opportunity I've heard about that store does like $2 million, so it's a good volume store, but the owner's there every single day. And so, like, I know that the sales are going to drop. Most likely the sales are going to drop. Because he does a really good job. And so like, I would not pay a premium for that store. Like, if I could get a good deal on it and the terms made sense, I would do it. Or if I had some sort of earnout where it was like, you know, owner finance and like I paid him as a contingency of me hitting certain milestones versus, you know, I've bought in stores where, hey, it was an owner-operator, but the sales were well below average. And I could tell, like, he just like he wasn't that good at sales. Like, he wasn't that good. That one, I'm like, I'm like, okay, because like, I know my guy's probably going to do the same, if not better. And so I think that's like the unique thing is like, as you approach it, especially because if you understand the business model and you can like see like how they're doing it and you kind of know like at what level do they play at. And if, you know, if they're playing at a low level, like I'm willing to pay a higher multiple because like it's like a cap rate. Like, you don't, you don't care about cap rates, right? You care about like what's the intrinsic value of the business or the real estate. It's the same thing. I mean, the strip mall guy talks about all the time, like he looks at dollar per square foot, not cap rates. And so that's kind of my approach to it is I kind of, I kind of just, you know, it's the same business that we're doing over and over again. So like, I know like, hey, is this worth it to me or is this thing like a piece of shit that like, you know, I'm going to pay a lot, like a lot less for because I know I'm going to need to put $300 grand into, you know, a bunch of work.

You know, it's almost like you, you, you, you can, you've game, gamified it now. I mean, you just can see something and I can see you almost sitting in the cockpit of your office and you're like, you're just dialing in. Well, we're dialing marketing over here, dialing the team over here. We need, we need better computer systems on this one. This one has, does not have the right people in place. And one comment you made around the, the owner in that situation. The more valuable you are as the owner, the less valuable the business is.

If you're the linchpin, right? If you are the linchpin that does everything and you're out, like, that's not, you know, that hurts it, right? So when you talk about like, how do you make your business more value to be sold? It's you remove yourself, right? Like, you should remove yourself from every single thing possible so the new owner can come in and it's plug and play. Like, you've got a management team in place. Like they can make decisions on their own, like, or they have, they have some sort of like framework they follow to make decisions. And, you know, we've, and we've had that like guys like, like couldn't, couldn't buy anything without like, like a roll of toilet paper. They need to call the owner to like get an approval and they're calling us and we're like, why are you calling us? Like, just buy the toilet paper, right? It's like we don't want to be bothered with like things that, you know, so then we, then we put in our, if it's under $300, just like go ahead and buy it. Like you know, then we put in like whatever a framework to help, you know, them kind of start.

Yeah, yeah.

But even for me, as I build my business, I think the same thing, like how do I— like the way I can make my company the most valuable is that me as the owner am not in any operational role. So like, you know, I was a store manager, I was the, the district manager overseeing, you know, 6, 7 locations. Eventually I was the CEO. Overseeing 4 district managers who each had, you know, 6 or 7, 8 locations. And then I hired a COO. So now he, you know, he runs all that. And then, yeah, you know, I, you know, I continue to kind of elevate myself. So that allows me to have time to go out and, you know, build the painting, you know, hire the guy to build the painting business or, you know, build my online audience, build the franchise education, like find all these new partnerships. I mean, that's why I do it, right? It's like it's a funnel for me to find guys who, who I'm now operating partners with, who, you know, I bring the franchise knowledge and the experience and, you know, sometimes the money and I can help them like accelerate this stuff.

Yeah.

Then what I need is boots on the ground and like the guys who like, you know, morning, day, night are thinking, how do I grow this business? And I think that's like, that's the only way you could do it. Otherwise you get so diluted.

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I, I'm, I'm wanting you to get— try to think of it from— in distilling the lessons that you have seen, 33 locations just in the ones that you have now, not to even mention the other businesses that you have. So whatever that accumulation of knowledge has been, let alone all of the deals that you have not decided to actually invest in or to purchase, We're talking probably hundreds of deals. And so, yep, with that, I would love to know what are typically— I would call them, you're taking your playbooks and then putting them into the business. What are typically the things that you're seeing? We happen to have just focused on the owner is too involved. They're too in the day-to-day, they're too in the operations. Okay, that's one. But what else are you seeing typically that to you at this point are almost layups from marketing, sales, team systems? What else are you seeing that you're just like, man, this is, this is the obvious distillation of the lessons you've learned?

Yeah. So yeah, marketing is a great one. Like we, we, we have a program through Midas where we can contribute additional marketing dollars. We get a match, you know, so it's like free money. If, you know, we've all, we put up additional money, we get some more free money and that we can use to drive local business, right? In a franchise system, you know, it all depends, but like there's different layers, right? You have like a national budget, a regional budget, a local budget. You know, and so, you know, especially a big brand, right? And, and, you know, so this, this, we get like a 10 to 1 return on our spend that, and we track it. Like we do what we spend. I spend all of it on direct mail. Like spend, I don't know, $700,000 a year on direct mail. And like we can track the addresses And, you know, we know we generate probably $7 million plus from those, you know, from those mailers. Well, direct mail, right? And then, you know, we buy these other things and they do zero like additional marketing. And then they're, you know, the phones not ringing. It's like, well, we haven't done any marketing. Like, we got to get in front of people, right? People don't like, you know, sometimes it's the thing that gets in front of them that triggers, oh yeah, I got to get that. I got to get this thing checked or I need this inspection or whatever. So I mean, that's an automatic. I mean, a lot of times it's just like the easy layups are just like there's stuff that are like deferred, right? Especially when someone wants to go sell their business. There's a bunch of things that the employees have been asking for that or just that they know is needed, but they haven't like they don't want to put in the money, right? Because you're like, you're on your way out. Like, why would you spend money on a new X, Y, or Z? And so, you know, as a new owner coming into the business, the easiest wins, we just walk around and say, hey, what do you guys need? Like, and they'll take all this thing's broken, this thing's broken, like we need this thing upgraded. And so, you know, that, I mean, that just helps us from like, you know, everybody's always nervous when a new owner comes in and they're going to lose their jobs, like what's going to be like, you know, in our message to them is, hey, we're going to invest a lot of money like into you guys. Like we believe in this store, we believe in this team. Like, you know, we want to get this, you know, get this place rocking and rolling. And then, you know, we, we, that's what we say and then we prove it. By the marketing, by like hiring the additional teammate that they need, by like fixing up all the computers or the lights, you know, whatever. So I think that's like a big one is like looking for those easy wins. You know, another one is just like every franchise and like every almost small business, like we're in the people business. We just happen to fix a car, paint a house, like take care of grandma, like whatever it is. And so like if you don't have good people, like your business isn't very good. You need to have, like, we identify core values in people. Like we try to hire for core values and then, you know, if, 'cause if they don't want the right core values, it doesn't matter their experience. So like for us, we want driven people. So like people who are like, wake up every day and they like, they want to succeed, they want to win. You know, we don't have to like motivate them, right? In a sense is that they're self-motivated, whether that's a technician or like an assistant manager or manager or whatever. We want people who have a high level of accountability. So like they do the things they say they're going to do. So if you tell a customer, hey, I'm going to call you back and like after we get this thing checked out, like you don't forget, like you do it because you said you were going to do it. Same thing for the technician, same thing for the people in the office. We're people that are team players. So ones that like, you know, business is a team sport, right? Like everybody's got to work together. Like, you know, even though like people have compensation plans that are, that are, you know, that are performance-based, it's still a matter of, hey, like the rising tide lifts all the boats and like lending tools or helping somebody with their stuff. Like, you know, two people call out a store and we got to transfer somebody from one store to another to help cover it. Right. Recognizing that. And then finally, it's like just being, being like positive, right? And having high integrity and just like doing the right thing. And so, you know, we look for people with that. So sometimes when we buy a business or we go into a place and it's like, you know, and the people are like, like they're on their phones, like, so they're not driven. They seem lazy, you know, they have low level of accountability. You know, they can't smile. And it's like, how the hell are we going to like— I like— no one's going to come back. Like, the customers don't care. It sounds like you're asleep on the phone. Like, like when you, when you pick it up, right? And so we— that's, that's like a big thing that we look for is like we understand we're in the people business and if we hire really good people, like we could literally turn a store, we could double the sales overnight by getting the right team in place. And if I lose those people and like we have a whole bunch of like new people who don't kind of fit, like our sales could drop in half. And so I think at least in the automotive business and we're seeing the same in painting, it's the same thing. Like people buy from people they like, you know, people want to do business with people they like. And the better job we can do at identifying talented people and then getting them like into the right role, that's how, you know, that's how we're able to grow and have a successful business.

You know, I think that in this— so I'm so glad that you said that because even in a business that is so operationally based, like has an operating system that you're going in and plugging in, you're also saying, yeah, we've got the playbooks, we know the things we need to go into this business and do, but we still got to have good people. You can't— no matter how good the systems are, you still have to have good people to be able to run it. All right. Last couple of questions. I want to know, how do you think about scale? I mean, the, the word scale gets thrown around, uh, loosely, and admittedly, I'm probably one to do that too. What does scale actually mean to you, and how do you actually think about and literally scale businesses?

Yeah, I think for me, it's that, like, success becomes, like, disconnected from the time that I invest, right? Like, like, we buy, we buy a new market, a new, a new group of 5 stores, like, my life from one day to the next doesn't change, you know, like, because I've got like the systems in place that, you know, I've got the team in the office that's going to onboard all the new employees. I've got a district manager who's going to be in the boots on the ground every single day, like getting that team up, up to speed. Like, you know, it's the same point of sale. It's the same, you know, we have the same marketing plans. We're just like, you know, investing into that area. Now we've got the same like reports and now we're just adding another column for like that market or like, or that store, like, you know, thinking to the point that, like, you know, I can, I can add a whole new division or potentially a whole new brand like this painting business that and my, like, my day to day doesn't change versus, you know, when we were like, when I was the one doing all the work, like, like I was driving every day up to that new market, like, and I was spending, you know, all day on the phone and like And now I had this whole new group of people that I was, you know, I was working with and I was getting on board, like I was doing all the work. And so for that, like, you know, like that, that's like brute force, right? But I think, you know, now, now that I think about it, it's more like, you know, I invest capital into hiring good people who, who then are the ones to, to do that. And I think that's when it comes to me to be more like scale and duplicatable is because, you know, I can't scale my time, right? We have— it's finite, but I can invest the money, which then allows me to say, you know, let's add— even now, like if I added Baltimore or whatever to my, my thing, like we could potentially add a new market and like, like I wouldn't skip a beat.

So I think that I just typed that into my log of lessons learned for 2024. That was really good. Scale means success is disconnected from time. That's pretty good.

And I don't view it as like passive. Some people are like, oh, well, that's like passive income, but it's not, you know, but to me, like passive income is like I invest in real estate syndications and I like have money in Vanguard that like pays me a dividend every month. And like, I literally like don't think about it because I have zero influence on it. To me, that is like passive. Even the Midas business or the painting business, like, yeah, I have a ton of influence over it. Like I can, if I choose, like I I can do a bunch of work. I can think about it. Like, I can think of new ideas and new partnerships and like, right, I, I, I can affect the business, right? Because I'm the owner of it. And so it's not, it's not passive by any means, but it's, but it's not the case that like I have to like clock the hours to make the money.

I love that. All right. Last question. But before we get there, if people want to connect with you, obviously you're a great follow on Twitter. That's how we connected. Where would you point them to, Brian?

Yeah, my Twitter's— Twitter's— I'm the most active there. It's @BrianBeers. I'm also working on LinkedIn. It's just— it's— you can find me there as well. And I've got a podcast that people like to listen to. Another podcast, it's Business with Beers. When I talk about franchising, right, like buying, finding, scaling, selling, just everything around it. Because, because what, you know, franchising like simplifies the path to business ownership. Because at the end of the day, we're still— you're like, whether you're an independent business or a franchise business, like you are still a business owner. And like every day, like you both wake up to improve your business. You know, in a franchise system, you just like kind of live within, you know, the sandbox. You live within kind of these guardrails that you have to follow. But like you wouldn't buy into the business, you wouldn't buy into the model if you didn't believe in that. Like I have no interest in doing bodywork or glass repair or like stereo systems or like all this stuff that's like outside of the scope of what our brand does. And I'm totally fine with that. Like, where other people, like, they want to like tinker and do all these new things and like, you know, great for them. Like, but for me, like, if you just want to rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat and just get like really good at like one thing, then that works. And so, you know, that's a lot of what I talk about is just kind of this theory. And it's, it is a little bit different way of thinking about business ownership by leveraging franchises.

So awesome.

That's great. All right, last question. The name of the podcast is Above the Business. Don't just want to work on just on it, but get above it. What does that mean to you?

Yeah, I think it's like the high level of like, where's this business going? Like, what are the big things that we want to achieve over the next year? Like, or 5 years? Like, in 5 years, what does this thing look like and what do we have to do to get there? And I think a lot of times even I and, you know, our leadership team, sometimes we do get stuck too much in the weeds, right, with these problems. And then it doesn't— because we spend all of our time talking about these little things, it sucks away time from thinking about the bigger things that can significantly move the needle. So like in our business, it's training. Like the whole technical field is, you know, the trades, right? There's been a deficit for years, like automotive. We've battled it since before I've joined. So 14 years now. And like, if we want to like win, like we need to have our own training and development program that's outside of whatever corporate offers and outside of like third party, that's outside of like trade schools, right? That we said, hey, let's like— so what would that look like, right? We'd have to invest into a trainer. We might have to invest into like specific stores that can come become training stores that maybe have a classroom element to it, that maybe have like this itinerary we have to pull people from. Producing money into, into the classroom, right? That costs us, that costs us, right? But we have to view that as like an investment. And so like, that's like, like building out our own training and development program is like a multi-year return. Like we're not going to see that in day one. We're not going to see that in the first year, or maybe within the first year, but like we would get a solid return over the long haul. And so, and then we build a reputation that, hey, you want to become a better auto mechanic and you work with these guys, like they're going to invest a ton in you, right? Same from the management side, like working on profit sharing plans and, you know, business education, right, for those guys. And so I think sometimes, like, you got to step back and look at like, well, what, you know, what are the big hurdles that we are going to face and like what's the solution? And then what do we start doing today to start working towards that solution?

And so that's, you know, yeah, what a great year.

January that we had this, this was the conversation we had in January. Like last week we just completed our first like, like training program. We said, all right, let's, let's bare bones. Let's just get something together. We got these 3 new guys we just hired, and for the first time we spent 3 days in a row with 3 people. Like, we brought multiple, you know, district managers through. We taught. And like, rather than before, it was kind of like we throw them into a store and it's, it's a lot of hands-on learning. And we decided, hey, let's, let's pivot and do, you know, classroom training for 3 straight days. And by the end of it, 2 of the guys like immediately we could see a difference, tons of notes. The third guy, we, you know, didn't make it. So, you know, and if we didn't do that process, it's possible we would have like, you know, made a move with that, that third person. And then that would have set us back 6 months because he probably wasn't going to make it in the store. And so sometimes I think it's like just stepping back and, you know, getting out of the weeds and like I said, working above. I think it's a great name and a great way to think about it.

You know, I do have to say this. That is classic, though, being an entrepreneur. You talk about it in January, you put it in place in February. That— oh yeah, that is what an entrepreneur does. They don't just talk about it, marinate on it. We're going to sit on it for the next 18 months. You threw together an MVP. It's not the big vision that you had, but you threw something together and you learned more, I'm assuming, by actually having one, even if it's 3 people in there, than if you were just standing in a boardroom and talked about it the whole time.

Oh, that is how my, you know, my brother and I built the business is we're like, we come up with an idea and then we're just like, let's just like shoot emails out to see if anybody wants to sell in this market. And like, you know, we don't even like, although they'll say, we'll say yes to something and then we'll figure it out. Like, yes, that's what we teach our guys to like in the stores is like, say yes to every customer. If it's too many customers, like you will figure it out. Like, but guys, like, they don't want to be restrained. They have this, like, fixed scarcity mindset. And like, I mean, my story is even funnier because it was— I was on Twitter. Forget the guys. Chris Hoffman, I think it is. Yeah, the Hoffman Brothers. Like, yes, Big HVAC. And he had this whole thing about, like, his training. Like, he built this whole training facility and, like, he had this very detailed post about his training. So I saw it, I sent it to my COO and I said, we need to do this. Like, and then, like, the next day we had a meeting on it. And then, you know, 3 weeks later, then we had our like super basic version of it. So it was from like a Twitter thread to like a, yeah, let's copy this. So this looks good.

No, that's great. That's great. That's exactly it. Twitter post, inspiration, idea, strategize, let's do the thing. And then you'll iterate on it. A year from now, it'd be a lot better than it is today. Brian, this is a great conversation. Appreciate you. Yep.

Thanks for having me.

Well, there was a lot of takeaways there. Hopefully you began to kind of think around, for me, it was just a reiteration iteration of a few of the thoughts that I believe maybe the philosophical— let me say that again. I think there was just a few philosophical beliefs that really were even deepened when deepened in that conversation with Brian. I think number one is just about the more valuable you are to the business, the less valuable the business is. If you are the linchpin, then there's not very much value in that. Think about how he talked about in that section where if there's a business that's doing well, but that owner is there every day. He's not going unless he gets a deal on that business. The business is doing well. He knows that it's not going to perform the same because you're taking the owner who's there all the, all the time. He would rather find a business that does not, maybe even has an absentee owner. He could go into that business, revive it, give it some CapEx, you know, put in some new computer systems, new compensation plans for the team, possibly. Have to bring in a new team altogether, he's going to be able to grow that business and be able to really get the numbers where they need to. We didn't get into talking about, but I'm sure he has scoreboards for each one of the companies and he's able to see what the, what the run rate needs to be. He talked about direct mail from a marketing perspective. And that doesn't mean that all of you, regardless of your business, if you're in insurance or any other company, automotive, that you need to immediately go into and invest in direct mail and that's, oh, that was the big takeaway. I don't think necessarily. I think what is more important is that he has a marketing playbook and it is attached with a scoreboard tracking system that he knows what the numbers need to be. Think about what he said, $700,000 in direct mail spend across the different, uh, 33 locations that has a direct attribution to $7 million. In sales. He knew that number, 10 to 1. And that is him sitting— that's VFR to IFR, visual flight rules to instrument flight rules. He's running those businesses, or really not running them, he's owning— he owns those businesses and is able to fly all of them by looking at the dials and the switches and the instruments in the cockpit, not by having to have his feet. He can't be at all 33 locations. So think about your location. And when you begin to kind of— and, and, you know, the way that I think about it, you become the architect of the business. When you begin to see yourself as the architect and you start to think the way that Brian is— that's why I wanted to have Brian on. Many of you may, or some of you might actually be interested in actually pursuing purchasing a franchisee. And if you are, Brian's the guy to be able to go and talk to. But I knew that Brian would give that type of insight just based on his follow, and he's got a great newsletter to check out as well. So hopefully that served all of you. I want to give a big shout out to our podcast sponsors. They can really help you to be able to scale. That's why we work with, honestly, some of the best of the best. Obviously, you know, Club Capital. Think about the financials that Brian needs to have across all of those businesses at that level of scale to have clean books so that he sees those on a monthly basis. They roll up to his S corps and then roll up to his holdco. But also, if you don't have good clean financials, we're just coming right in the middle of tax season from between the corporate deadline and between the, the personal tax return deadlines. This is a great opportunity for you to think about, do you have good control of your financials? If you don't, reach out to Club Capital. You know, he talked about a training and development program. It is critical. I talk about developing A-players all the time. He talked about if possibly he needs to get new people in. Really and truly, Alex and David are some of the best of the best. If you want to be able to have someone like Autopilot Recruiting to help you to be able to get quality candidates, to build a pipeline of people, A-players or potential A-players anyway, into the top of your funnel for your team, they are absolutely the best. And then when you bring those people on, if you want to be able to like, where do I start with this whole training and development program? That sounds like a good idea. It doesn't mean you have to be the one that's doing it all the time. That's why if you're in the, in the insurance space, David's fantastic. Go to coachpconsulting.com and go to autopilotrecruiting.com. If you need help on the front side of the recruiting, finding, sourcing great people, that's where Autopilot Recruiting shines. You want help on the back side whenever they, the team comes on board and you want to be able to train them and develop them on a weekly basis, nobody has a better program than David and Coach P. Go to coachpconsulting.com, autopilotrecruiting.com. Also on this episode, Brian talked about installing new computer systems. Well, with those, that actual hardware that he has, you know that he has preferences in the software. Again, that, that wouldn't have been applicable for me to ask, you know, detailed questions around those type of things because I'm sure it would have been specific to his industry. But if you're in the insurance space, TodayApp Pro has absolutely some of the best software that can help you to be able to grow and, as I talked with Brian, scale your business. Easy to use, intuitive, Corporate approved, don't have to worry about any of that. Syncs up with it. Take the WordTracks that you have, plug it into the UI. Fantastic experience for both you, going to give you the insights that you need. Just like the financials, you want the insights from Club Capital for your financials to make better decisions on a day-to-day basis with the business. The same thing is true with TodayApp. Go to todayapppro.com, todayapppro.com. Really appreciate our podcast partners. And I really do look at them as partners, not just sponsors of the podcast, because everything that we're doing here at Above the Business is to help you rise above the day-to-day, get out of the day-to-day weeds, get out of the operational aspects of the business, and be able to see business from a different way. See it not just on it, but actually above it. And the way we do that It's really 3 ways. We help you through this podcast to be able to get above the business. We are this year, actually in the next couple months, going to be launching our newsletter. I'm really excited about that, the Above the Business newsletter. My clear outcome of that newsletter as I'm putting it together and starting to think through it is how can it be an email that is a I will not, will not miss that email. In other words, look, we get literally emails all the time. That is a super high bar. I get, I don't even know how many inboxes my, me and my, uh, Lauren, my EA, have to manage. It's a bunch. Um, but maybe 6.

Um, that's a lot.

There's not many emails that I actually read. I'm gonna be honest, there's not many, but there's a handful. And those handful of emails, those are the ones I've been looking at and trying to figure out what is it about that person? What is it about what they talk about that when that email comes in, I won't immediately archive it out of my Gmail. I'll actually read the thing. Well, that's what I'm trying to build for all of you is to help you through the podcast and newsletter and. Our events. At the time that this is dropping, we had just finished our quarterly. So we run the quarterly every quarter— the March quarterly, the June, September, and then we, we run the annual. And then also we have a couple 2-day events, and I'd love to invite you to come and register at our next 2-day virtual event. It's over Zoom. It's on a Tuesday and on a Wednesday, and it's called the 2-Day Intensive. And we're going to— over those 2 days, we're going to take a topic. And at the time of this recording, I'm still working through exactly who the speakers are going to be in the lineup, so I obviously don't want to tease that too much here. But we're going to take a topic, we're going to spend 2 intense days on that topic with some of the best of the best. I'll do a couple presentations, but I'd love to have you join us. It's completely free to register. If you just go to abovethebusiness.co, abovethebusiness.co, you can register for that event and join me for 2 days along with some incredible speakers at the 2-day intensive. That event, our newsletter, and of course this podcast can help you rise above the day-to-day and be able to get above The business. I'd love to see you and serve you. AboveTheBusiness.com. All right, everyone, till next episode, lead well.