Episode #10: Navigating Finance and Franchising (with Nick Hondrou)

Beautiful. Well, Nick, I just wanted to thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. We thought it would be one that we've been really excited to get on. We thought it would be really helpful for a lot of people to talk to someone who's the expert in the finance side of things. When someone's looking at potentially joining the local Guys, finance is always a conversation that comes up regularly and you're our expert and point of call when it comes to the local guys pay. So we thought it would be great to get you on and we can discuss a lot of the things that happen in regards to finance and what lenders are consider when assessing a potential lender and all the rest of it and go from there. So thanks so much for joining us.

Yeah, it's great to be here and great to help all your franchisees and your customers. Yep, perfect.

No worries. Well, I thought we'd just start off by maybe kicking off and learning a little bit about yourself, what sort of lending you do and how do you help us out here at the local Guys?

Yep. Well, I'm a low market broker, so I've been a broker now for nearly 25 years, which is a long time, so a lot of experience and we. I've done all sorts of lending as in home loan lending, commercial lending, investment lending, car loans and personal loans. So in recent years I've done a lot of car loan and personal loan lending.

Sure, sure, no worries. And I think you've touched on an important point there. Two of the points that we see a lot of or types of lending that we quite often need throughout the local guys is obviously people want to be able to fund the actual franchise in itself, but then they also were a man in a van, so. And we've got vehicle requirements and stuff like that. So sometimes people need to look at upgrading their vehicle as well and they might need to look at getting finance for a vehicle as well.

Yeah.

So I thought like we could potentially go through each one of those aspects and talk about how that's sort of broken down and what the lenders look like poor and that sort of thing. So I guess starting with the actual franchise in itself, what type of loans do people have available to them that would, that would work for looking at purchasing a franchise?

Yep. There's a few, I suppose, depending on their situation. Of course, you've got loans that are sort of like a personal nature, if you like.

Yep.

As well as there are loans that we can do where we don't need any time with the ABN is important. Yep. So like a lot of the times the lenders are looking at longevity in the abn. Yep. But there's a lot of lenders out there that will do, you know, just startup type lending. Yep.

It's probably going to be more around the, that would be more around the business loan with that.

Yes, that's correct. It's probably one of the hardest loans you'll ever do.

Yeah.

Because there's no income from this business that we're trying to.

Brand new business.

Brand new business.

You're not buying existing.

Exactly. So, so to say that, you know, to the prospective lender, you know, we've got this great business happening. Well, we don't really know.

Yeah. Now I guess being part of a franchise probably assists in that a little bit. Being that, that it's. We're not creating a brand new business business off scratch. That is a proven model.

Yes.

But as you say, it's going to be a lot tougher because there's no financials there to work off of and.

It does come down to the franchisee. So at the end of the day, you know, whether they're renting, whether they already own a house or what their situation is.

Yeah.

Whether they've got a family, whether they've got a wife with a wife working, all sorts of things that we need to go through to make sure that they can afford to do what they want to do.

Yeah.

A lot of lenders will look at things like, you know, future and probably from, from the franchisor looking at numbers to go, well, you know, what do you think this business is going to do? Yep. And they go, they go on those numbers. Yeah. Yep. But even so, a lot of the clients that are ringing and a lot of the people that we're ringing back to see what they can do are already working full time or they're already working in a business. So we can go off those figures as well prior to them getting into the local guys franchise.

Yep. So if, if a business loan is one of the harder ones to go through, what other options available are there for people to be able to get into the franchise?

If they're still working, we can still do personal type loans.

Yep.

Because they can then we can then use their income that they've already got.

Yep.

And we can assess the income, we can assess the loan on the income that they've already got.

Yeah.

Whether that be self employed or payg.

Yep.

So because what about partners?

Like if they've got a partner.

Yeah, definitely partners. A lot of the Times the franchisee want to do everything together with their wives and themselves. So yeah, we can definitely use their income. Yeah. Or we can just use their income with that person looking as a. Getting a loan for an investment purpose.

Yep.

Yeah, yep.

So you might have a husband and wife that's. That's looking to build this business. The husband's going to be out there being the actual on the tools and the wife is going to keep her business which has that regular income that's coming in. And then the goal might be to ultimately for her to move across to the business once it's sustainable and all the rest of it.

That's exactly right.

And I guess from a lender's perspective that looks a lot more appealing.

Well, it's a lot stronger because the average, say average family, let's say it's two adults, two kids. Kids are liabilities, unfortunately. And it gives us a good cross section of how they're actually operating and what they're actually earning. So male applicant may be earning $60,000 a year and a female applicant might be earning 120 or 100 or whatever it might be.

Yeah.

Which gives us. And if they've got home loans and renting and all that sort of stuff, everything comes into it.

Yeah.

In these days, living expenses is very important.

Yeah.

So we look into that quite heavily as well.

Yeah.

And that makes up a big factor of whether they can afford the loan or they can't afford the line.

Yeah, yeah, sure. And I guess from the vehicle perspective, I'm assuming it would be a lot more straightforward in that regard. I would say the harder one would probably be more the personal loan slash.

Yeah.

Because there's an asset there that the.

Business loan is always the hardest because we're buying and once again we're buying a new business so we don't know how that business is going to go. And that's. That's important.

Yeah.

The car.

There's nothing to repossess and there's nothing to repossess.

Yeah. Realistically.

So if they default on the loan, at least with the vehicle.

Correct. There's something there that they said is the vehicle and then. Yeah, that's. That's 100% correct.

Yeah. What is when a lender is looking at up someone that's looking at coming and getting a loan, what's some of the major things that the assessing. That's the main things that they're looking at to see whether one, whether they want to lend the money to that person, that candidate and I guess two Is what the interest rate or risk.

Yeah. Well, look, as a broker, we do a lot of that assessment before we actually send it off to the lender. Because it does know once we've send it off to the lender, it's a mark on your credit report. So it says you actually went for a loan. So we want to try. And by coming to a broker you can assess whether they can actually go through that process. So we send out our.

So you quite often might tell people, look, let's not even put an application in. There's no point in putting that on your credit report.

You sort of know. Yeah, but we, from my perspective though, I want to get the whole picture because if I don't get the whole picture around whether they've got a wife or whether they've got kids or, you know, where they've got any other major expenses, then I can't really, I can't really assess what they can do.

Yeah.

And I'll, you know, I assess it pretty heavily. So I might be able to pick out something where if we just go on what he was doing.

Yep.

Then we may not be able to do the deal. But then all of a sudden you look at the partner or something else. Yeah. And all of a sudden it gels together.

So. Yeah.

So we send out our fact find, which is called the hello book from our CRM and we gather all the information that we can.

Yep. And what sort of things would that be?

It's assets, liabilities, income, obviously.

Yeah.

Living expenses, obviously, name, address, phone numbers, all those sorts of things. But it gives us a huge picture of a snapshot of where they are and what they're doing, who their existing lenders are. They might have home loan with Anz or something like that.

Yep.

We may be able to, we may even be able to utilize that part of it where we can raise cash off of the home loan.

Sure.

So there's all that and there's, that's why we sort of try and get the whole picture.

Yep.

Because just, just looking at the sign, oh, can you, Can I get a loan? Is just. That's not the question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so some of those positive things I guess that you're sort of saying is one, obviously they own their own home. That's going to be something that the lender is going to. That's going to be a plus. If the, if they have a full time employment, that's going to be. If they've got a partner that has full time employment or both of you.

Then that's obviously housing is really important in this whole scheme of things because the lender looks at it as though these guys are already committed to something. They've already paying a monthly mortgage, but it also puts together just their commitment to what they want to do.

Yep. What's your process? So when you're first meet with someone who's putting in an application, what's. How does it. How does your process look? So obviously you've got your, your lookbook, you get them to fill in all that information and then you. You'll basically do your own assessment of it.

By the. I do my assessment on which lenders are going to be able to fit the criteria. Yeah.

So you've got a vast. You've got a vast.

Yeah. We've got many, many different lenders.

Right. Yeah.

I've lost count of how many we've got now, but there's a 40 or 50 different lenders, probably not that many in the personal loan space and what have you. But there's still probably 10 to 15 lenders in the car loan and the personal loan space that we can go to. I was just thinking back on affordability and assessment and all that sort of stuff. If we've got a client that, say, has been in business for two years and they want to just maybe they've got enough money to put in to buy the franchise, but they still need to, say, buy a $50,000 car, we can use their ABN as a tool to be able to get that as a low dock, basically. So we don't need to know how much they're earning and all those sort of things. As long as they've been in business for a while, we gather some information, but we don't have to gather all the information.

Yep.

And we, we can fund 100 of that vehicle.

Is it. Is there deposits that normally for this sort of scenario. Are deposits a thing that people normally have to come up with or is it.

Typically deposits are important if you, if you haven't got a house.

Yeah.

If you're renting. Yeah. Normally you would have to put in 20%.

20%?

Yep. If you have a house normally you should be able to borrow the whole lot. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So. And again, I guess that's one of those things that you can assess case by case and see if they sort of.

Correct. That's right.

Got that. And how does it work as far as the interest that people are going to pay?

Interest is interesting. Basically. Interest can be. Is more determined by the credit score on your credit report.

Yep.

And also whether you've got a house and all those sorts of things. So it's just not one. Like if someone says, oh yeah, we can get 8.95 at the moment.

Yep.

That might be from 8.95.

Yeah.

Depending on your situation.

Yeah.

So yeah, there's a little, once again, there's a lot of things that go into the assessment of that. Right. Yep.

Yeah. So 8.95 is the marketing number.

Yeah.

And then whatever the real number is is going to be customized to the actual person.

Correct. Depending on the, on the person, the risk. Yeah, depending on the risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is, it is all about risk.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so what sort of things would you suggest to someone if they needed to or they wanted to go and get finance for a franchise? And you know, what would be some of the things that you would suggest to them as pre work for them to do before they looked at, you know, potentially contacting you or going, going ahead of moving forward. What would be some of the things that would be best for them to get into in order to put the best case forward?

Yeah, look, if they're still working, it would be pay slips. Yep. Statements of where all their income goes into.

Yep.

Living expenses, all that sort of stuff. So that'll come out of their statements. Yep. As well as things like ID and whatever else we need. But I think, I think first and foremost it's definitely best to get in contact with the broker first and the broker will just tell them exactly what they need. So someone rings me or I get a note to ring someone from you guys. I'm asking them questions of how they're going and where they are with their business or what they're doing personally. And then once again sending out that information to get that information back.

Yep.

And that's, that's the most important thing is sort of getting it from the broker.

Yeah.

Rather than sort of going, okay, I'm going to get this and get this and get this. Yeah, you might as well talk to the broker first and then go out and get your stuff.

Yeah. And I think, you know, even doing like a, a business plan is something that is, I mean, I mean, I know that from a finance perspective at this level of the game, like I think if you were looking at a, maybe a business loan of a couple hundred thousand dollars, the bank would probably require that a lot more than that. You know, we're a lower cost franchise. So I think that that sort of takes that out. But I still feel like it's probably a really important step for a lot of people and it shows a lot of stuff to us as the franchisor. If we've got a franchise candidate that's gone out and done a business plan, one, it sort of sets up realistic expectations of what they can earn and what their expenses are going to be, but then also for the serviceability of a loan. Because if the. I mean, what sort of terms like how long do the loans typically sort of how long do they tend to be?

So normally, look, you're normally looking at five to seven years.

Yep.

Depending on the lender.

Yep.

And depending on how we're structuring.

Yep. Is there normally any sort of cost to pay those out early or anything like that?

You can have break costs depending on. Some lenders don't. Yep. And some lenders do.

So.

Yeah, once again, it depends on the. Probably depends on the rate. If you're paying a higher rate, you're probably not going to have a break cost because they're covering it in the rate. But I would say more often than not, you're going to have some sort of break cost.

Yeah. Okay.

What that is, do it depend on the lender.

Yeah.

But I agree with you that everybody should have some sort of business plan.

Yeah.

Depending whether they're buying a million dollar business or whether they're buying a $50,000 business, they need to know what their costs are going to be, where they're going to move forward from day one to whenever and. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. And I think that's like a question that I quite often get at the early when I'm doing a discovery call or whatever and they're sort of saying, you know, how long am I going to take to get up and running? And it's the hard part about that is I don't know your personal circumstances. So I don't know if you need $150,000 a year net profit or $200,000 a year net profit or whatever your number is. I don't know what your rent is, I don't know what your living expenses are. Do you spend like crazy? So I think that that's why it's a really good idea that, you know, people do go through that business plan themselves and that they have a clear understanding about what their expenses are and all that sort of stuff. So they have a good understanding. Then they can go, right, here's the loan amount and we can do it. And I know we've had, you've helped us out with franchise partners that have come on board. Many franchise partners come on board with the finance side of things. And you know, we've had ones that have come in and paid the thing off in the first 12 months, which is a great situation to be in. But I think that you need to sort of allow for.

Yeah.

Every scenario. Basically, when it comes.

It's interesting, we talk about living expenses and I think, you know, years ago we didn't really talk a lot about that.

Yeah.

Now it's absolutely essential that we talk about it.

Yeah.

Because, you know, even if your husband or wife or you've got two kids or whatever it might be, your situation is always going to be different to someone else's situation.

Yeah.

And the way you live, you might live a lot more extravagantly than anybody else.

Yeah.

You know, and that's really important.

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that's the thing like a franchise, and especially a service based franchise can be an extremely profitable venture. But you know, you've been in business for, what did you say, 30 years now.

Too long.

Too long. Yeah. And you know, like it's, it's, you know, it's not like, I guess when you say maybe get, get employment or whatever, when you can go. No risk.

Yeah.

Guaranteed income. I get paid every single day from day one. And there's no risk on that side of things. I think when you're starting up your own business, especially those first 12 months, is you. It's kind of like firing up a rocket ship. And the rocket ship uses the most amount of its fuel in getting off the first few feet off the air. Once you've got momentum and ticking over and all the rest of it, then it's a completely different story.

And look, you can do all the prospective numbers you want at the beginning, but yeah, it's always tough to know how much you're really going to be earning. And, and it is a little bit. Well, a little bit. It's always a big risk.

Yeah.

Because as you said, there's no fixed income.

So.

But as long as you know what your fixed costs are, what your living expenses are, all those sorts of things, then. And then you know how much you have to earn and how hard you have to work to get to that to that point, if you like.

So yeah, yeah, it saves a lot of stress and worry and all the rest of it. And I think we call it the value of death. And once you can kind of get past that value of death, then it's like you're off at home and hose. But I mean, we're lucky in the fact that at the time of this, we're at a 96% success. Success rate with our franchise partners, which is, which is a great thing. But this is an area that we're investing in heavily at the moment in, you know, assisting people with questions around finance or budgeting is something that we're working on massively for our franchise partners to assist them in those early days and limit their spending as much as they possibly can. To know that, you know, we're on. On a journey and we're, we're at this part of the journey and we're going to get to this part.

Yeah.

And it's funny, we see it, the franchisees that on the other side of it and they're just like, so happy and like, it's great, but it, but it is a completely different thing from might be working for an employer for, you know, your whole life to now in business for yourself. And it's, it's an experience.

Oh, look, I've seen that happen quite a bit. So it's sort of a. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a different kettle of fish working for somebody than working for yourself.

Yeah.

And it's a lot more pressure on yourself. Yep. But it can be hugely rewarding. Yeah. Yeah.

One thing I was going to ask you is what's the process if someone comes to you and you do your assessment and you find that like, hey, it's probably not going to fit here. What sort of. Do you give them? Sort of. Do you sort of say to them, this is what I suggest to do. Come back to me in 12 months, like, here's the things we need to see on paper.

Yeah.

And what is it? What is it typically? What's the most common reasons why it doesn't.

Well, I always tell people to try and save as much as I possibly can. Yeah.

Because the banks will see that savings.

As well, won't they? That's right. That sees them looking as though they're making a regular payment into a loan, if you like. And that's why they save that at me out say from a home loan point of view, the banks always just ask for six months of savings history and that shows that every month you can put away just to pay that loan. And that's what I'd like to see as well. But people, if people can't get a loan now, I try to coach them through and I keep in contact with them, just say, look, how you going with your savings? Have you increased your income? Their circumstances Might have changed in six months or 12 months time. Or you look at them from now and you go, look, they know that they're changing their job right now and we can't get them a deal because they're changing their job. Then in 12 months time that might change as well. So if they're really keen to go ahead.

Yeah.

Especially you know, with you guys and the local guys. And then, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna knuckle down. Yeah, they're really gonna knuckle down. So I don't like to just leave them and go, sorry mate, you can't get a loan.

Yeah.

It's more about, let's see, let's see what we can do for the future.

Yep.

We used to do that a lot with, you know, first home buyers where they'd come along and they got $5,000 in their pocket and they want to buy a free 300 or 400 thousand dollar house.

Yep.

Ain't gonna happen.

It's not gonna happen.

So we put them on a savings plan.

Yep.

Get them up and, and let them know exactly what they need to do to get to that point.

Yep. Yeah.

And that's how we do it.

So it sounds like to me then the best thing to do is to basically have the conversation wherever the people are at in whatever the journey is of whether, whether they think there's no chance or there is or whatever, it's best just to pick up the phone. There's no cost to it, there's no. I know your process is very similar to ours and the fact that we don't put any pressure on anyone for anything. If we can add genuine value and it fits and it makes sense for everyone, then, then we sort of move forward. And I know you're.

I'll give you an example. Yeah. It was actually one of Damien's clients.

Yep.

And I've been, I was working with this girl for probably two months.

Yep.

And she'd constantly ring me and she's new to the country. Yeah. She was Colombian from memory.

Yep.

And she had, she had a partner as well. Yeah. As things went on, I'm not sure whether it was a language barrier or whatever it was, but I don't think she was trying to pull one over me. But in the end it worked out that they're on a 491 visa.

Yeah.

Which is really hard to get money on a visa.

Sure.

But there are lenders out there that will do it. Yeah. So. And I think the next time I speak to her, which is probably going to be two years time because that's when the loan actually expires. We actually got her a loan. Okay. But what I did was I said to them, look, you've got a lot of other debts here. They had credit cards, they had Carlo two car loans. They were renting. I think they had two or three other debts. So the biggest thing, I think they were affording what they could do.

Yeah.

But it was really messy.

Yeah.

I said, let's consolidate all this stuff.

Yeah.

Let's consolidate all these loans together.

Yep.

And I think it was gonna save them. Like it was nearly eight or nine hundred bucks a month.

Yeah.

Wow. So. And I said to them, that way you can start once again going back to the old savings thing. Yeah. The money that you were putting into it, save that somewhere.

Yeah.

Or pay it off. The loan. Yeah. So you become debt free. Yeah, yeah. And. And yeah, the light went on there and she said, look. Yeah. Because she said, I still want to get into this franchise.

Yeah.

Because she's already cleaning.

Yep.

And she's already working another job as well.

Yep. So she could be doing it for herself.

That's right. So. So she was, she was wrapped that I actually came up with that way to do it. We made much out of that deal. I mean, I spent a lot of time and effort on just trying to get them into a position where they could then clean everything up and then go, okay, let's, let's look to say 12 months down the track.

Yeah.

With her it's going to be two years down the track because that's when her visa finishes.

Yeah.

And she'll probably have a permanent residency by then.

Yep.

And so we only did the loan over two years.

Yeah.

So. So in, in that respect. Yeah. She'll be ready to buy franchise. She's keen as mustard. Yeah. It was a shame that she. We couldn't really match her and Damien up because everything else, she is keen as mustard.

Yeah.

Yeah. Really? Yeah.

And I think that's the thing, like, I think it's like, about responsible lending. I think that, you know, if it needs to fit for everyone and it might be that it fits now and we can get people in, but it might be, as you say, send them away and tell them to come back in 12 months time. And I know from our perspective, because it's not for us, we're very much like, once we get someone into a franchise, they're a part of our family. Like, we're speaking weekly. Like, this isn't like, okay, cool. We've sold something now, see you later. We don't see you again. So if we put you into that situation or you've gotten yourself into that situation or as a team with yourself, we've got someone to that situation and then it's like, oh, now we can't really afford this. We're going to be every single week. And then, and then we see it in other areas that they're panicking about this and panic about that and it just doesn't make sense.

And that's the same as me. I mean, I don't want to put people in a position where they decide that they can't afford to do what they've tried to do and they run their business because they've got this massive loan and it just doesn't work. Yeah, yeah. And, and also, I guess, I mean, I'm not part of your business, but I am in a respect if I'm helping people get into your business.

Absolutely.

You know, and I mean there's a, I'll use this term lightly, but there's a lot of drop kicks out there.

Yeah.

But, but they're not, they are and they aren't. I mean they just don't understand process and understand how they can do what they want to do.

Yeah, yeah. And they haven't controlled their own personal finances journey themselves. So then to be at the responsibility of a business as well.

Yeah.

Then that's just putting a magnifying glass on. And those small problems on personal finance, I got to buy some massive problems.

A lot of people have never borrowed money before at all.

Yeah.

You know, and they just, they just don't know how to go about, go about it and what the consequences are in borrowing that sort of money. Yeah, yeah.

And as you say, we just put, we just 10x the problems where if we can instead get, see that financial acumen is there and there's responsible savings and they're responsible with funds and all the rest of it. This is probably going to carry through to all of your other stuff because if they, if they can't cover, you know, the personal finance side of things, then chasing up debtors or chasing up clients for invoicing or invoicing the correct amount, like that's probably going to fall over as well. So I think it's almost like a good fail safe there.

Yeah. And it gives them a good, a good idea of what they can do in the future. Yeah. And you know, if it's just cleaning up debt and putting things together, taking them over longer term so it's a shorter, Shorter payment. Yeah. But it enables them then to. Either with the money that they were forking out, they can actually put that on the loan, pay that off quicker or they can save those funds.

Yeah.

And it's. It's horses for courses. So getting them in the right. In the right, yeah. Lane to.

Well, I know even, like myself and Stacy have contacted you and we've sort of said, this is what we want to achieve financially. What can we do? And then you've given us a plan and we've sort of got. We're working that plan. So I think it's the exact same whether it's a home or whether it's an investment or whether it's business or whatever. It's. It's the same premise, I think.

I think once you, Once you do something like that, it puts. Puts it in perspective of what you can do in the future.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, there's. It's easy sometimes to get the debt and get a credit card and do this and do that, but it's very easy.

Yeah.

Once you. Once you get rid of it, this weight.

What are some of the misconceptions of getting a loan, do you think, as far as starting a business, is there a lot of misconceptions that you sort of constantly sort of reprogramming people on because they've gone into thinking it's going to be this, getting a loan for a business and it's something completely different.

Yeah. I think a lot of people think it's a lot easier to get a loan than it really is.

Yeah.

And a lot of it, once again, comes down to, you know, assessing the assessment of a loan. Yeah. You know, when I ask people about their living costs.

Yep.

They go, what do you want to know that for?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said, well, we need to know that because, you know, you might go out every Friday, Saturday, you might gamble, you might do this. It was all sorts of things that people do.

Yeah.

And as I said, if you had. As I said before, if you had two adults and two kids, put two families in the same pod.

Yeah.

Their living costs are going to be completely different.

Yeah.

Because they'll spend heaps of money on these kids. These kids get nothing.

Yeah, yeah.

Or they might go out.

They've got. Going out for dinners, everything.

Yeah, everything. Yeah. So it's amazing how. How much you can get just from. In fact, a lot of lenders now aren't even asking for pay slips.

Yeah.

All especially personal. All they want is 90 days statements.

Because I can see the whole.

So they can see the whole picture and they go through every. Every little detail they can go through.

And they're going to get the statements essentially from what your income is through that.

Yeah.

And they're going to see your spending habits correct. Yeah.

A lot of times you're spending more than you're earning.

Yeah.

You don't even realize it. You just do it. I don't know.

Yeah.

Just the way it is.

Yeah.

A lot. Most people probably don't budget.

Yeah.

Or they haven't got the wills and means to know how to budget properly.

Yep.

But that's some of the misconceptions, I suppose, the fact that they. They do find it a lot tougher and they, you know, you ask them questions about certain things and they say, why do you. Why do you need these things? What do you want them? You know, we're up front. Well, we need it because we don't know what you're doing. We need to know.

The bank wants to know they're going.

To get their money back.

Yeah.

That's all right.

All right. So. So, finishing up. What's the number one piece of advice do you think you would give to someone who is looking at getting a loan, they're interested in joining the franchise and they're wanting to do it? What's the number one piece of advice you'd give them at that stage of.

The game if they can't. If they haven't got the means to do it right now?

Yeah.

I would say don't give up the dream.

Yeah.

If that's where they want to go to.

Yeah.

Then I'll always help them get to where they want to get to.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Correct. That's right. And, you know, making the first step and actually ringing someone, like the local guys and saying, look, I want to find out about this stuff. I want to get better in my life. I want to do. I want to do better. Yep. And earn more money and help my family more and all that sort of stuff. That's a big step to do that. And then talk to someone like myself or a bank or whatever it might be, getting all the information you can up front is the best thing you can do.

Yep.

Yep. For those that can do it and they've got a bit of cash behind them and all that sort of stuff. Well, all well and good. They're probably just going to go ahead and do whatever they do.

Yep.

But at the same time, you need to find out the whole picture. Yep. It's just not local guys saying, look, we think you can earn this and we can do that, and this is how much it's going to cost you. And la la la y. It's on the other side of it. And my side of it's probably pretty important, I suppose, when the fact that, you know, we're trying to coach them and get them into. To do what they want to do might be. Not right now.

Yeah.

But keep the dream going. It might be 12 months, might be two years.

Yeah.

Local guys are still going to be here, hopefully.

Yep.

And. And they can do it. Yep.

All right, so if someone wanted to. Wants to reach out to you, what's the best way that they can do it?

Probably through local guys. Yep. Okay, so we'll put all that. I mean, or they just ring me direct or whatever. But I mean.

Yep.

Once I, I mean, once I get a referral from you guys, I ring the people straight away or the next day.

Yep.

And keep on trying to get in contact with them. So I'll. I'll do that either by their email or their. If I can't get onto them by phone, I email them.

Yep.

Or they can. If they can know my details or if you give them my details.

Yeah.

Ring me direct. Yep.

So they can go to the local guys, pay.com and jump onto there and input their information into there, talk about the different options.

I think it's finding out what they can do before they go all the way down the track and, you know, trying to do things and they realize they just can't. They haven't got the money to do it.

Yeah. And that's, that's quite often the conversation I have regularly with people on the franchise side of things is we'll start talking about the franchise and all the rest of it and some people will be like, well, I'll stop you right there. Let's talk about finance first. There's no point wasting my time wasting your time. If we can't get the finance sort of first. So I'll quite often handle all the moment to you. They can go through that process. Then if we know what's real, then we can come back and continue that conversation on. Around the actual franchise itself. All right, perfect. No worries. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to join us. I know I've learned a little bit about finance and. Yeah, no, much appreciated.

Thank you very much.

No worries.

Cool.