The Franchise Playbook That Built Empires | Franchise Fridays With Jeff Dudan #168

Hey everybody, Jeff Duden here. And welcome back to Franchise Fridays. On the home front, let's start with this. Franchising is responsible for more than 8.7 million jobs and nearly a trillion dollars in economic output in the US alone. This is not a trend, that's a force. Franchising is everywhere. And if you understand how the model works, it might just change your financial future. Today I'm going to break down what franchising really is and what it isn't. How the model works across industries and why franchising is a launch pad for entrepreneurs. And if you stick with me, why the biggest opportunity in franchising right now is not where most people think it is. We'll get to that at the end. But first let's start with a few fundamentals. Franchising is a model, not a business. I want to clear this up from the jump. It is a business model. The widget, the product or service, it can be anything. Food, fitness, fencing, filters, doesn't matter. What matters is the model. Franchising gives you a framework to deliver value through a brand that already has market presence systems for you to work within and support. It's not about reinventing the wheel, it's about getting behind the wheel of something that already works. Franchising is a multi location distribution model that has many operators delivering the same experience in different markets. Franchising is a shared cost system. If you don't have to build tech, create the brand, build the infrastructure, it's a shared service, you don't have to do that alone. And it's a speed to market strategy. Let's say somebody comes up with a great business model or a great idea, but they don't have the money to expand it themselves. They they can launch faster with fewer mistakes using a proven playbook and get into every market in the country and ultimately the world. This is one way everyday people, many with zero business background, become business owners for the first time. It's structured, it's scalable and it's built for speed. Also, it's a leverage business model and you get access to big business tools. Most people don't realize the kind of leverage that franchising creates. As a franchisee, you gain access to a CRM platform that's already set up call center to engage with your customers both via voice, via chat, through the website, all the ways that customers are engaged with marketing programs. How do I find customers and what do I say to them? National vendor discounts there's always a benefit in the supply chain by collective purchasing which is inherent in a franchise system and of course, training systems, recruiting tools, all the like things that you would have to create yourself. But you get on day one of starting with a franchise, you're tapping into these tools that would cost six figures or more to build on your own. And you get them for a upfront fee. And then, you know, few pennies on every dollar going forward lets you plug into a system that's already resourced, it's tested, it's operating in multiple markets, and it's tuned up for performance. For a lot of people, franchising is the first step into entrepreneurship. It's transitional, it's transformational for so many people. You're not figuring it out on your own. You're stepping into a business model that's already been refined. And for others, it's the breakthrough that takes their career or current business to the next level. You develop real business skills, you gain confidence, you start thinking like an owner, you build capabilities and that shift, it can change everything for you. Franchising is also a community. You're joining a tribe of people building the same business in different markets. You share ideas, you collaborate on best practices and sometimes even hard lessons learned through failures. These are the things that lead to incremental growth and will fuel your success as you go on year after year building this business inside of that community. And don't mistake this for small business only. Some of the most sophisticated operators in the country run hundreds of franchise units across multiple brand. Jerry Richardson, the founder of the Carolina Panthers, he started with a single Hardee's franchise when he retired from the NFL as a tight end for Johnny Unitis. And he built that to 400 Hardee's locations. He took that money, invested it in real estate, in insurance, in other businesses, and then ultimately had enough money to be the lead investor and the founder of the Carolina Panthers football team, which, oh, by the way, the Panthers and the NFL all another franchise. That's the ceiling this model can break through. If you can, you win the next opportunity in life by succeeding in the one that you're in. And if you can be successful in a single unit within a franchise, then it's up to you to play Monopoly and figure out do you build that brand bigger, do you add other brands to it? But working within it, within a proven business model is a way for great operators to scale and scale quickly. So a franchising is the model and it can scale from first time business owner to huge, huge hundred location operator. Where should you be looking right now to get the most return with the least amount of risk. Let's talk about that. I personally believe that the smartest place to look today is in home and property services. It may not be flashy, but it's durable. Some of these businesses are recession resistant and definitely scalable. This is where we focus at home Front Brands because it's got the fundamentals that make sense. There is an increasing population. By some estimates there will be 150 million more people in this country by 2050. There are housing shortages in many of the markets that people want to move to. You see it reflected in the pricing. We're sitting here in 2025. Home prices, building prices have skyrocketed. There's a migration from one part in the country to another part in the country due to remote work from cities to suburbs, suburbs to cities. People get to go and live and work from wherever they want to. So when they leave a home, they have to and they buy another home. There's work that has to be done. We have an aging infrastructure and all of the things that have to accompany all of the new building across the country. You also need to bring the schools and you need to bring the malls and you need to bring the hospitals and the universities and all of the things that come with it, which is again more home and property services that are going to be required from the home front Brands franchisees. Not to mention that today, even in the multimillion dollar homes, you're going to get some apartment grade quality things, some non real wood materials, some press board and things like that. So these homes don't hold up to water, moisture or age like they used to. And there's just a skyrocketing demand for repairs, maintenance and property improvement. These are huge trends, estimated to be a 10.3% compound annual growth rate in home services alone. Some 511 million jobs are going to be produced next year. And property services is one of the fastest growing, most dynamic and most durable and secure things that you can get into. I like to say you will never find a home front branch nestled comfortably between a Blockbuster Video and a Curves fitness franchise because there is no obsolescence with home services. And if you can do it, you can do it next year and you can do it bigger and bigger year after year. That means you've got staying power. So putting your family into something where if they can do it and they can do it well, that they will constantly take market share and they can build something that is only limited by what they can dream that it can be. And the number of people that they can attract to help them build that dream. And property services offer some of the highest return on investments for franchise investing. Very low cost to get into. Generally zero build out or a very inexpensive build out. Not like a class A retail space that you get into with A and a, you know, there's, there's no cap because you don't have a physical location that you're limited as to how many people you can serve inside of that fitness or studio or some of these other things. So if you're a long term business builder and you're looking to gain capabilities, confidence and skills and invest in a business, I recommend you look at property services. So in the end, what is franchising? It's not any specific product or service. It's a playbook. It's not about getting rich quick. It's about building something real and something durable. And if you pick the right lane with the right system, you're not just starting a business, you're building a future. You're ready to take a closer look at franchising, especially the opportunities in property service. Check us out at Homefront brands and that's homefrontbrands.com we're building something that lasts. We're building it with great, sophisticated owners that are up to something and going somewhere. I'm Jeff Duden, this is Franchise Fridays and I will see you next week, same time, same place. Thanks for listening.