Andrew Millar - Franchising Success uBreakiFix

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the Small Business Show. We have a really interesting interview for you today. We're going to talk a lot about franchising and what works, what doesn't. And we've got a, you know, just a really a great depth of information that with related to a specific type of franchise, but also just franchises in general. And I learned a ton from, from this show and I'm excited to. To roll into it.

Yeah, this is an enlightening one for sure. Ye on many different levels. One certainly about franchising, but others as well as you'll hear throughout the show and I'll just leave it at that. But, but there's a lot to learn just listening to. It's Andrew Miller who we've got here and listening to his style of, of just how he approaches things. I think there's a lot to learn there too.

Yeah, well, beyond what we're talking about franchise, just about sales in general, you know, making sure you're transparent and really, you know, putting a lot all that good data out there and it's kind of a soft sell. Right.

Would you agree? Because, I mean, he wasn't here to sell us, nor was here to sell you folks, but it certainly seems like his approach is very much the soft sell.

Yeah, they're trying to find the right fit and you definitely want to stick around to the end. He's got a great exit comment about what someone should look for and when they're looking for a franchise. It's really helpful. I think you're going to enjoy the show.

I think so too. Are you ready to get rolling, Shannon?

I'm ready to Small business man.

Well, let's, let's small business then. He is Shannon Gene. I am Dave Hamilton and this is episode 305 of the Small Business Show.

No, we do. It's one of the, one of the most common questions. Shannon, you're spot on. I think in any franchise brand is, hey look, let's, you know, kind of dive to. The main question I've got is how much can I make? You know, what's the first year look like? What's the next three years, five years look like? So we have like every franchise company has a franchise disclosure document that I usually spend usually an hour on our initial call going over not only the document but just basic questions around marketing support and on the, on the kind of return of investment. I think there's no better person to talk to than a local franchise owner in your state calling up a few, especially with the pandemic I think asking those tough questions which, what was it like? Pre. What's it like? Post, as a company, very, very fortunate to be in a position to be, year over year, 30% above our target from last December to this December.

So we've spoken to hundreds of small business owners over the past six years here on the show and you know, a lot of founders starting things on their own, but also, you know, a number of folks that were franchise owners that have had success with various franchise businesses and stuff. And I know nothing about franchises, so it's kind of fascinating.

We almost franchised one of ours years and years ago. Oh. And then we decided, no, it was too much, too much headaches, but, you know.

Yeah, okay. And, and I recall actually having a guest on the show. His name escapes me right now, but that one, when I asked him what his best mistake was, he said it was, what, trying to franchise their business. I don't know if you remember that. Who?

Gary.

Gary Von Mere from.

Gosh, I can't recall. That's right. Yeah, we'll put a link in the show notes.

Yeah, we'll put a link. Let's talk about it. So it's great that we have somebody with us today that can, you know, go through this franchise thing's great. And we get to talk. Today we're going to talk to Andrew Miller. He's a franchise sales specialist with you Break Ifix, which is a fascinating business model and we're going to dig deep into the franchise business model to see what makes it work for some people, maybe not for others. And you know, we're going to talk about it and I'm really excited to learn. Andrew, thank you for joining us today.

Hey, David, Shannon. Great to have have me on. I'm excited about this interview.

Yeah, it's cool now. So let's kind of start. How did you find your way to Ubreakifix and to learning all about franchise business sales and tell us kind of what your job is as well. So I don't know.

Yeah. And I think, Shanna, you opened it up so well with franchising. It really isn't for everybody. I like to mention that on my initial conversations with everyone and franchising might not be the right fit for you. It might. Let's dive in and see if it is the right fit for you. But in terms of my road to franchising, I heard about the company through a friend in Orlando, Florida. He's the controller for you. Break iFix. His name is Micah. Anyway, he mentioned about four years ago that they were looking to expand this franchise model. And I'd seen ubreak Ifix stores locally that fix gadgets. I had never used the service yet. I am now an avid breaker of devices. I realized I definitely dropped devices more than I'd like to admit. But that was my way into the company with UBreak iFix. And what my role is is really just to educate prospects on what UBreak iFix is, the business model. You know, to your point, Shannon, if this is the right fit for them, from a career move, from an investment move, all the above. And on our side, I'm very fortunate to be in a role where I get to make sure this is the right fit for us to bring on board as well. The right people.

Yeah. Cause you want them to be successful. Right. You don't want to have somebody there that you're just pulling teeth to try to make it work. Right.

It really is, I think for us, you know, having people that are passionate about business, you know, just the obvious ones, customer service, you know, they like working with people. If that's not something people find that's the right fit for them. There are other franchise out there that I think are maybe less customer service facing, but for us, yeah, we want to make sure people are passionate about working with people, being in the local market, you know, making a change and an impact in the community.

Yeah, that's cool. That's good. So, okay, so let's answer. You know, we have thousands of small business owners and, you know, tons of aspirational small business owners that are listening that, that are trying to get out on their own or make the jump from corporate to their own thing. Why a franchise versus starting out on your own? And I guess what I mean by that is can you highlight some of the pros and cons, Independent versus a franchise, what you get, maybe what you don't get. Something like that.

Yeah. I think across franchising, kind of a rule of thumb is, I think, for one, I guess, the pros of franchising versus maybe the possible cons of doing it yourself is you have a, you have an inbuilt business model already proven. Hopefully there's. Hopefully there's a track record, you know, double, triple check that, that they've got a proven concept not only in the state or city you live in, but how many stores do they have across the U.S. you know, what's their success rate, what's their failure rate? I think what I like to do is encourage prospects to not only ask the easy questions about you know, what's it like to be an owner, but ask about the stores that have maybe failed or the, you know, why they failed. So I think one big thing for franchising, I think for, for us anyway, is having a business plan or a playbook I call it, that's already been written in you as an owner. You can add your own, you know, I guess, you know, kind of spin on things with whether it's hiring the right people that you want to hire locally or if it's family. But follow the playbook that's been done for the last, you know, 10, 15 years, however long it is. I think another pro to franchising is having an inbuilt customer base who are hopefully already loyal. You know, whether it's McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, whoever, people know that name, you know, they might not. For me, I'm not a huge fan of fast food. I try and stay away from it. I know it's just after Thanksgiving and I've put on a few pounds, but I think having a proven business model support is another huge thing versus independent. If you're going to go out and do on your own, you know, all the best to you, but that sometimes isn't the easiest way to have the right people around you. Training, access to parts yourself, the location aspect, real estate choices, you know, if you had that knowledge, great, you know, but I think if it's an independent kind of going on your own doing it, is the market saturated you're going into is another thing to look at. If it's a new, new business plan, new business model, sure, I think it's worth exploring and getting some wise counsel around you before you do it. But if the market's pretty saturated and you're trying to do it yourself, I think you're kind of swimming upstream. It's going to be fairly challenging to do.

Yeah, we're going to talk more about that, specifically your market and that saturation and stuff. I have some questions about that too. But one of the things that comes up as you talk about the support and the guidebook and everything, which I do think is great, but I'm a fiercely independent person. We call Dave and I call ourselves patently unemployable. Right. Because we like to just, you know, do things on our own and try all kinds of stuff. How, how wide of a lane do you get as. And I know just speaking to your franchise model, are there, you know, is there, is there room for an independent minded person to kind of maneuver within there or do you really need to kind of stick to that guidebook to have those good results?

Yeah, that's a great question. So we, as a company, we want to collaborate with every owner that comes on board. And when I say that just to expand on what I mean in more detail, once someone's gone through their due diligence, they move forward with our brand. You'll work with a team that'll collaborate with real estate choices in the market. The people that you hire, it's 100% up to you. You know, we'll give you guidance on who to look for questions to ask in an interview situation. But you do have flexibility and autonomy to hire whoever you think is the right fit in terms of marketing local businesses in your area, you know, to your point, kind of the independent, having that DNA. You know, for us, we want owners to kind of run their local, their local community, you know, going out to chamber of commerce, you know, joining local businesses, making sure that you're networking, you know, at least once or twice a month. There's some things that, you know, with franchising, it just comes with the territory, you know, with us, we have partnerships with Samsung and Asurion and a Verizon, which there's certain protocols and guidance you have to follow and regulations. But the bigger picture, yeah, there's. We've got quite a few owners that are just entrepreneurs, came on board, you know, wanting to do it themselves and we gave them a playbook. But within that playbook we said, hey, here's there's kind of free rein in these areas you can run with, which for us, it was really a win win situation.

Yeah, that's cool. And do you guys take feedback from those types of owners to help improve things? Like if someone comes up with a new way to, you know, do some repair, Kind of like the guy who invented the, I don't know, the egg McMuffin or something that I'm sure was a franchise owner at some point. Do you do that same kind of thing?

There are literally products launching this month. This is December 1st, as we speak, in initiatives that were brought up from our franchise advisory board. I see, yeah. So they meet typically bi weekly and they'll actually, whether it's the top sales in a certain state or the best at labor, best at market. And we choose kind of the, I guess the top tier on that advisory board across the US And Canada. And for us, they give us feedback and for us, it keeps us on our toes as a company, which we like, because franchise owners will never shy away of telling us how they feel at the corporate level. So I love the dynamic of that. So the advisory board will give us insight of just what's happening on the local store, local level.

Yeah, that seems really important.

Yeah, I'm looking at this kind of the same way you are Shannon, with the, The. Am I gonna. Am I the right guy for this because of how independent I am? And so I guess the, the question that I'd have for you, Andrew, is when you see someone like Shannon or I who starts with a phrase like patently unemployable, you know, like, how much of a warning sign is that for you in a scenario like this? Because clearly, you know, in order for the brand to be the strong brand that it is, you. You have to have your owners, your. Your franchises following a probably pretty strict set of rules. Right. So how, how. How dangerous are people, like, sharing?

Yeah, they're very. That's a, That's a great question. So, yeah, we like to obviously make sure this is the right fit early on in the process, you know, where we want to make sure we sync up and our expectations line up. I've had the pleasure of working. You guys sound very similar to a few owners I've worked with over the years where they've kind of gone out and done it themselves very well. And they're like, why would I even want to look at franchising? I feel I can do maybe just as good a job on my own. So for us as a company, I always will just tell prospects, one, you know, connect with some owners that have a very similar mindset, entrepreneur focused background as you. And we have a list of every owner in the US So very early on in the process, I'm like, hey, this is kind of the overview, the expectations for us as a brand. But here's a list of five to 10 owners that have the same background as you. Talk to them. See if corporate would be the right fit for your personality, your ambitions. Sometimes, you know, they'll. They'll call up and say, yeah, you guys are maybe a bit strict for us. And other times it's a great fit. They're like, hey, we'll follow the playbook, but we also will add our own spin on things where we, where we can. And usually it matches up well, sometimes, you know, there's, I think, 4,000 franchise opportunities out there to choose from.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so that makes sense. I mean, as a business owner, certainly coming in, you identify, okay, well, I've got a proven business model. I'm going to have support. I've got a loyal customer base. The branding is already done for me. You know, you have to know that there's a compromise to that here. You know, sure. You, if you want to be part of that, you actually have to want to be a part of that, not just take advantage of that. Right.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I, I'll.

And I'll usually encourage owners prior to even being an owner with us, as they're doing their due diligence, is once you, you know, you're all in with us is follow that business model that we've done just over 600 times now across the US and Canada. But once you get to a certain level where you're hitting the average economics across the country, you're doing well. Let's sync up. If you have feedback for us, we would love to hear how we could improve at the local level. But follow at least for a year or two and then let's look at the other ideas we can explore with you.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. Hey, I want to take a break here and talk about our two sponsors for this episode. Our first sponsor today is Remote hq. Listen, we are all working online right now and for a lot of us, well, some of us, we've been doing this for a very long time, but a lot of us are going to be doing this for a very long time. And you want to make sure you have a tool that is not just video conferencing and screen sharing. That's great. That should be a part of the tool. But what you want is true collaboration. You want all your web tools and your people in one place. You want to replicate online all the ways that people work together physically in a virtual office. And that is what Remote HQ delivers. You create a Remote HQ workspace within that, you can create unlimited rooms. You can see who is in which room. You can look at past sessions in each room. You can bring different apps into a Remote HQ room to customize the way you collaborate. So if you want that shared browser, great. You use Trello or something like that, great. Just bring it in. You use Miro, bring it in. You use YouTube, bring it in. Google Drive, no problem. Bring it in. Right? And this way you're truly creating that collaborative environment. That virtual office is right there inside Remote hq. And there's no software to download because the platform is browser based. You've got to go check it out. In fact, you have to go specifically to remotehq.com partnerships SBS for a free trial. And then, and this is really important when you're ready to launch, use code sbs. That's for the small business show SBS for three months for free. So go check it out. We've got links in the show notes@businessshow co if you want it there. But remotehq.com partnership SBS for that free trial and then code SBS for three months free are thanks to remote HQ for sponsoring this episode. Our next sponsor is betterhelp@betterhelp.com SBS. Look, what interferes with your happiness? Is something out there preventing you from achieving your goals? I mean, there's a lot going on right now. I know for me, it's really helpful to have someone to talk to. And that's why better help is there. They will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. You get to connect in a safe and private environment because it's online and it's so convenient. You can start communicating in less than 24 hours. Because this is not self help. It is truly professional counseling. You just get to do it safely, privately from your computer online right there. You can send a message to your counselor at any time and you'll get timely and thoughtful responses. Plus, you can schedule weekly video and or phone sessions. Right? You don't have to do a video. You can do it over the phone, just voice, no problem. And you don't ever have to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room, which these days is even better. Like, that's part of what BetterHelp is great for. And they're committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches.

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So they make it easy and free to change counselors if needed. They have licensed professional counselors who have specialized in all kinds of things. Of course, depression, stress, anxiety, relationships, sleeping, anger, family conflicts, self esteem. And of course, anything you share with them is confidential because that's how that works. You've got to check it out. In fact, so many people have been using BetterHelp that they are recruiting additional counselors in all 50 states. So we want you to start living a happier life today. And as a small business show listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor@betterhelp.com SBS Join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. Again, that's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com SBS and our thanks to BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode. All right, Shannon, back to you.

Yeah, this is really cool because I really like the background of this concept of making sure the fit is right for both parties because it's just intrinsically the smartest way to do it because you don't want somebody to buy in that's going to be miserable and vice versa. I think it's great. So looking at franchises, your Ubreakifix is a really pretty technical business model. Is, is that the type of person that you know, you try to recruit or that is typically attracted to yours, or do they not need to have those skills because they can hire people? What do you recommend?

Yeah, great question. That's probably one of my favorite questions I get on our initial conversations. So we, we have about 40 to 45% of our owners across the country are from other franchise brands who have diversified over the last five to 10 years. We've got owners with McDonald backgrounds, we've got owners with over 100 Verizon stores in Pennsylvania, Sprint owners, Popeyes. I mean the list goes on hair salon owners. But then the other group are people that are maybe corporate refugees. I stole that from somebody else. I can't take credit. But they come from the corporate world.

Take credit, it's fine. Nobody knows.

And they've spent 20, 30 years and done really well for themselves. And they are looking to be, to quote them, be their own boss, looking to diversify, do something different with their career. So you do not have to have a repair background. Most people coming on board don't have a repair background. Never fix a device. You know, they can turn their smartphone on, maybe hit the TV button to hit their TV on or laptop, but ask them to fix a device, they're like, where do I start? So we do have a six weeks training course and we have ongoing training. But a lot of these devices are really plug and play. I realized from experience I did not come from a repair background. I studied in Scotland where I grew up for 25 years. Born and raised in Scotland. I would have never guessed that for anyone listening. That's where I'm from. So I realized I spent some time in stores early on before joining corporate with ubreakifix. And I realized that a lot of devices are just plug and play. You know, they look advanced, they're expensive, but when you actually break the device apart, they're all very similar. You know, maybe there's a certain screen that's bigger on a tablet versus a smartphone, but they all have screws, they all have a power input, they all have a motherboard. They're fairly basic at the core of them. So to answer that question here, yeah, you do not have to have a repair background at all. We'll train you up on repair that's great.

Yeah. I would say that's a good testament to your training system if you're willing to put. Because I mean, yes, somebody buys into this franchise concept, they're going to put a lot of work into it. But clearly there's a ton of work on the back end with your team to get somebody up and running and to get them successful, which is what you want.

There is, yeah, we, we have just now, I believe, just over 150 corporate employees in Orlando. Most of them working from home as we speak. And I'm sorry to use the word pandemic on this show, but.

Oh, that's okay.

We all live amongst it.

Yes.

Yeah, so. So for us, most of the team is just support for owners when they come on board from site selection marketing training team. We also do an on site training for three weeks when your store is up and running. Up and running.

That's cool. Yeah, this is great stuff in the background. I love it. So how does somebody go about finding, okay, we've got a corporate person that wants to go out on their own or we maybe have independent, like, oh, I want to get some support. Where does someone start to look for a franchise to try to find the right fit?

Yeah, great, great question. So even people that inquire through our website, I'll always give them, you know, other options to look at if this might not be the right fit for them. And I would usually start with the IFE International Franchising Expo on there. There's actually a ton of different opportunities you can look at online. So I'll actually walk them through the IFE website, different franchise opportunities that they can explore so they can, they can actually narrow it down. So if they're into the food space that they think that's the right fit, they can type in certain food industries, you know, hour of operation, if it's the automobile industry, whatever it is, they can actually explore. And I think there's about 4,000 opportunities on there and then once they narrow them down, you know, make sure you spend a bit of time with not only corporate but talking with owners. And I think I mentioned that at the start. Make sure you talk to a few owners in that business.

Yeah, that's great. Okay, so I want to jump back into this Ubreak iFix, you know, business model. I'm fascinated by it. I'm sure it's because I was in the repair business for 20 plus years. I'm happy to be out of it now. But my take on that business is, you know, it really evolved Over a few decades. And once it became more of a commodity type business for things like phone repair, that franchise model really started to make sense, I think to stabilize the market. You were talking about things getting saturated also. I think the franchise model kind of brings quality standards. You mentioned national branding, also parts availability. I mean, I can't tell you. I'm sure you understand the amount of time you. You put in trying to source quality parts. I mean, do you think I'm on the right track with that or is is my framing not. Not correct?

You're spawn, Shannon. So I think as you know the industry very well yourself prior to to us franchising, to quote our CEO Justin, you know, it was kind of the wild, wild west back in 2007, eight, nine, you know, and it's such a young industry even to the to this day. We've just been very fortunate and blessed to be able to land a lot of national partners, which has given us a lot of credibility and I think value to customers nationwide. But yeah, absolutely. I think for us, I think one of the best decisions we did was back in 2013 was to offer this as a franchise. We had 47 corporate stores in different states back in 2013 and felt the franchising model was just the right fit for us. If we could partner up with the right people nationwide, they have their own ownership. Kind of piece of the pie of the market share. With repair, this could kind of be a home run. And for us, and really to brag on our owners right now to be at 604 stores nationwide is just incredible. To be partnered up with the likes of Samsung, Google, and to your point, Shannon, access of parts. Oh my goodness. I won't spend long here.

Yeah, we could do a whole show.

Yeah, I won't bore people on inventory, but having our own distribution center in the US as a company having access to OEM parts, the same part that you buy when you buy that new phone, we have access to with our partnerships on the repair. So it's truly changed over the last four or five years with the national partners.

That's cool. Yeah, that's great. So we talk about if you've ever listened to the show before, we always talk about mistakes because primarily since I've made so many, but also just because they teach you so much. We wrote a book on it all about mistakes and their small business show guides. So what mistakes do you see potential franchise owners making when they're getting started? Is there common things that tend to happen?

Yeah, I think one is the hiring side of the business. I'll always go on the side of when you hire for our business, specifically someone with repair. That is something that it's great. But I would always encourage someone to go with customer service over repair and I see. So that's something I think for in just in general, I think is another thing to touch on with franchising is when somebody comes on board, I think they, I think most franchises offer great support. I'm sure there's some are maybe more stronger than that. But I think sometimes people are like, okay, I've got support from corporate. I'll leave it up to them to do the real estate side, the marketing side. So where the training wheels on the bike, but an owner must pedal the bike. I know it's a cheesy analogy to give.

No, I like it.

For us, that's kind of our motto as a team is we're the training wheels, but you have to pedal along with us. Be involved. Understand your people, be at the store. It doesn't have to be every single day at the start, but be there as much as possible. I think another thing too, sometimes when people, you know, you hear the quote all the time. Diversify your portfolio. I think only do that if you or you have a trusted owner or partner with you that can spend the needed time to get that new part of your portfolio up and running. I think sometimes people kind of forget it. They'll set it and forget it. And if you don't run your business, you know, you're kind of. Your business runs you that whole old saying. I think it's so true in franchising if you're not hands on involved at the very start, you might be setting yourself up for maybe failure before you've even picked up, you know, a device or picked up a, you know, whether it's a food franchise, whatever it is you're doing.

Yeah, I think it's great advice because I, I could see that, you know, wanting to be hands off, dashboard type, you know, thing. But I think you have to be involved and I really like your focus on the customer service side. Dave always reminds us that every business is in the customer service business. Whether you're making sandwiches, fixing phones and tablets or selling cars. Right. It's all that stuff. So we also love stories on the show. I'm going to give you the opportunity. Maybe you can share a story or two with us or either a franchise disaster, someone that's been really successful, one or both. Anything come to mind that you could share with us today?

Yeah, absolutely. I'll lean on the side, especially because it was Thanksgiving. So I guess gratitude for us as a company is our owners, they don't even have to do this, but they get fully involved if there's a tornado that went through Nashville recently or when there was bad storms in Houston not long ago. Whatever it is, whenever there's a disaster, we reach out corporately to say, hey, would you want to offer free repairs to local ambulance, fire, police, even customers that aren't serving in that capacity if they've been affected in a certain city or state, Would you get on board and kind of give back to your community? Never had an owner say no. They've always said, yep, happy to offer that locally. And our partners, by the way, Samsung, Google, all the above, they always get on board too. So that's, I guess that's kind of a feel good factor for us is kind of the bigger picture is people have devices that they have 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You know, smartphone is on my desk all the time, always in my pocket. So for that to break or that to be an inconvenience, we just want to kind of pay that forward to our owners. So it's probably the most recent one this year.

That's great. That's great. Yeah, I think that, you know, back to that, that repair, that repair business model, you know, I can remember we were doing overnight laptop repair everywhere in the US and we had our boxes and every DHL truck. You could pick it up by 2pm, get it overnight, repair it, send it back overnight. And that was at the time I'm dating myself, phenomenal. But when the phones came along, it was like, wait, I can't leave this thing. You, I've got to be with it. And it just changed that business, you know, so much.

So I have a question I have to ask because so much of our background together and certainly, you know, my other businesses are rooted in the Apple world and I would be remiss if I didn't point out that I've noticed you like not once have have mentioned Apple as a partner. Now I know if I go to ubreak, I fix, I see that iPhone repairs are part of what you do. But yet Samsung and Google are the only things you mention. Is there like too weird of a spot? But I know Apple is an interesting company to work with in terms of sourcing and Shannon knows far more about that than me.

So you brought up a great point. So this is actually a recent update. I was going to save it to the end Because Apple.

Okay.

Apple's such a big one. No, I like that you brought it up. So we are, we are as of July of this year, we're on Apple's independent repair provider program.

Congratulations.

Yeah, thank you. So if you go on their, their website on Apple for the independent program, there's 700 stores, give or take, that are on there and over 550 of them are our stores across the country.

So that's a big deal.

It is huge. Yeah. I'm a huge. By the way, I'm an Apple geek. I've gone Apple watch on I love iPhones. So yeah, we, we are able to access genuine Apple parts through our, through our partnership with Assurion. So yeah, pretty cool. Kind of a step in, in the right direction with Apple.

I had no idea that anyone could get genuine Apple products.

Yeah, they announced that was it last year.

Yeah, I didn't know if they any, if they actually opened it up. Like there's a difference between an announcement and that this.

Yeah, yeah, we're super pumped to be able to offer that to, to customers.

Well, yeah, congratulations. You know, from that perspective, as you know, things just got harder and harder and harder to get quality, you know, product and parts. That is just a huge step up if somebody wants to be in that business. And, and that bring that. The stability that it brings where you can do this cookie cutter approach is, is phenomenal.

Yeah, you guys are spot on I think for always going back to the customer aspect. You know, the fact that customers now can just feel. And nothing against mom pop stores and independent, there's some incredible ones out there. But for us as a brand, being able to offer the same experience day in day out across the country, if you're, if you're traveling to New York and you're based in Chicago, just like if your favorite coffee shop's there, you feel like I know that name, I know that brand. I feel safe. I can trust it wherever I am.

Have you folks ever acquired a mom and pop one off type shop to sort of expand the brand and yet inherit a good location and customer base or anything like that?

Yeah, we have.

We still actually offer right now kind of a conversion program for people that one are the right fit. You know, they're in a market that's available and we cover, we cover 85% of the country right now with our stores and vans that we, we provide. So there's, I guess the window of opportunity in some states is already closed or some still availability in certain markets. But yeah, we do. We've had about, I would say about 30 stores out the 500, sorry, 600 now that are open are ones that are mom pop stores, really strong. And you know, they wanted to partner up with us, so they joined the family.

That's great. That's a huge testament to what you're doing over there. That's great.

Thank you. Yeah, we're lucky to have them.

Yeah. So I've poked around in all these franchise sites and I'm always looking for opportunities during the course of my career and on these websites and forums or people are talking about and you know, and it seems like if not the number one, it's certainly in the top five. You know, the question I usually see is, you know, something along the lines is, okay, how much money can I make if I, if I get this franchise and start this up? Do you get that same question? And if, if you do, how do you answer it? Because as a business owner, you know, there's so many variables that impact, I would imagine a particular franchisee success. Right. So. So how do you deal with that question? If, if you get it, maybe you don't.

No, we do. It's one of the, it is one of the most common questions. Shannon, you're spot on. I think in any franchise brand is, hey, look, kind of dive to. The main question I've got is how much can I make? What's the first year look like? What's the next three years, five years look like? So we have like every franchise company has a franchise disclosure document that I usually spend usually an hour on our initial call going over not only the document, but just basic questions around marketing support and on the kind of return of investment. I think there's no better person to talk to than a local franchise owner in your state. Calling up a few, especially with the pandemic, I think asking those tough questions, which, what was it like pre. What's it like? Post. As a company, we're very, very fortunate to be in a position to be, year over year, 30% above our target from last December to this December. So I think a big part of that is our national partners that we have. So. And yeah, from a return of investment, we kind of go through, and I won't go through all the numbers here obviously, but yeah, we spend a lot of time going over. We show on our financials in our fdd an average of our sales. We also show the top 25. And I don't know how to be more transparent. We actually show our bottom 25 to everybody too, to kind of Give you guardrails with the business.

That's great. Yeah, I just would think that that transparency and openness and like here, call this guy or just, you know, talk to this group and see how they're doing because you know they're going to be pretty honest. I would imagine they are.

They want to bring on people that are especially going to be neighboring owners from 20, 20 miles away, 30 miles away. They want to have a good owner in the market with the brand.

Yeah, that's really cool. Andrew, you know some really great information today. Have I left anything out? Is there any other, you know, information that you would like our listeners to understand about the business model? Anything that would help them make a decision if you know, franchise is right and what type of franchise? Anything that I, that I haven't asked yet?

Yeah, I think one thing just to kind of narrow down into is the partnerships that we have. You know, it's almost, I remember an owner saying this. It's kind of like starting at second base with the franchise. Then there's, I couldn't name too many out there that has an inbuilt customer base that when you open up your store, almost like a light switch going on at Samsung. Google Assurion Assurance, the largest insurance company in North America with 150 million customers in the US having that customer base to they get sent to the local store for convenience for customers is, I mean there's really for us, no one that can kind of compete with that sort of level of customer base. And I think too if someone's interested in reaching out@ubbreakifix.com or emailing me directly, I think just the software side of our business too. We have our own built in software system training, marking. I mean I would say at this time, Shannon and Dave, our business is a turnkey opportunity for owners.

That's awesome.

Well, that's great. I mean as a business owner coming or a potential business owner coming into a franchise, you want that turnkey. I mean that's part of what you're paying for upfront and over time, correct? Yeah, yeah, very cool.

I'm really glad to learn about how this works and your insight into that franchise model. And I think there's just some great, you know, data for our listeners to run through and listen and to make a decision about any franchise. And you know, so we're going to put your info in our show notes@businessshow.co. is there anywhere else that our listeners should go to connect with you or to learn more about the Ubreakifix opportunity.

Yeah. I would go either on ubreakifix.com franchising or also if you just want to get an understanding of just the devices we fixed, we actually have a YouTube page as well that shows different devices. So if that's usually that's a question mark for people. They're like, I'm a little hesitant because I don't know how to fix devices. Check out our YouTube page. It just shows different devices. We fix what it's like to work in a store.

Oh, that's great. And I think you guys are really well positioned because clearly these devices are getting more and more important to us and nobody wants to give them up. So having those local, you know, repair centers is just critically important. Andrew, thank you again for spending part of your day with us and educating us about franchising and keep in touch and, you know, we'd love to hear from you from time to time.

Awesome honor to be on the show, guys. Have a great rest of your week.

Thank you.

Man, what a great natural salesperson he is. I mean, I know he's honed his craft, but you know, I'm always looking for like the automatic things that people do and his immediate reply to everything we asked him. Great question. Right. Like he that that's classic sales and it's basic sales. But it's so effective and it's truly is. If you learn one thing thing from this episode, it's when you're in that scenario with someone who's looking to buy from you but get used to doing it everywhere so that it's just automatic and natural. You want to be as natural as him and say great question. Because it keeps that person engaged. Yeah, yeah.

And then that, that back and forth of what I just kept hearing me. Well, we, you know, we want to make sure it's the right fit.

Yeah.

For the buyer and the person that's going to take, you know, buy this franchise, but also for them.

Because yes.

If, if they bring on a problem where it's not a good fit, it's like trying that, you know, round peg in a square hole or whatever. You flip that around, square peg, round hole, you know, it's going to take up way too many resources. So there's some kind of inherent. It's a success cycle, if you will.

Yeah.

Because they're trying at the time, same, same time they're trying to attract people. They're trying to find the right people that you know. So hopefully it's a win win for, for both parties. A lot of great information about franchises in general.

Yeah, no, he, he really, I mean it. He explained, without getting meticulous about it, why franchises make sense for some folks and why, and quite frankly, why they don't. And, and like you said, I mean, if it's not a good fit, they don't want your, your money either.

That's right. Yeah. They're not going to make money in the long run.

No. And they're going to devalue their brand. Right. Bringing in, you know, somebody that's going to be too much of a lone wolf right out of the gate, not so good. You know, it doesn't matter what your track record is. We have our brand. You got to go do it our way. Yeah, I like it. Yeah.

Yeah.

And if you're, if you're a franchise owner that's had success or you, or had maybe not so much success or had the change to make things work, we'd love to hear from you. Feedbackusinessshow.co you want to come on and talk about your experience and, you know, give a, give a different take on things. That would be great.

Yeah, we'd love to, love to hear from you, love to chat with you. It's great stuff. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. Thanks for everything, my friend Shannon. We thank you, Dave. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, keep living that charmed life. Send us your feedback@businessshow.co review the show fire book, but keep living that charmed life. I'll see you next week.