Opportunties NOW - With Dante Vespignani of Turma Inc…

As always, you know, I've got to stop saying another amazing guest because all our guests are so amazing. And thanks again for supporting us on these live streams. Make sure you join in and share your comments, share your questions, anything you'd like to chime in with. You need to be on Facebook Live or on YouTube Live to share the comments right now.. If you're not there, just click on the broadcast that you're watching and you can go ahead and share that stream too, or come over to Black Belt Jim on Facebook or the Sensei Leader channel on YouTube. This— later this week, we've got two amazing people coming up too. Chad Helmanack will be visiting us from the National Federation of Credit Unions. He's talking to talk about— he's going to talk a lot about empathy and the importance of it, and he's going to highlight some of the great leadership we've been seeing from our credit union folks all across the country. And then Jan Rutherford, a leadership expert, author, speaker. He was on Walking the Walk with us recently, and we're going to have him on the live stream on Friday at noon. But right now, I want to bring on one of my dear friends. This is a gentleman I've known for quite some time. He's been a great supporter, a great mentor, great friend, and he's an expert in all kinds of business areas, especially franchising and starting up small business opportunities. And Dante Vespignani is going to come on and talk to us about all the opportunities we have in the middle of this glorious mess, right, Dante?

Absolutely, Jim. Hey, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Wonderful to have you. So what do you think? What, what are some of the things we should be looking for?

I tell you what, there's a couple things, uh, that I came to mind. Uh, number one, um, it's a real perfect time for everybody just to go ahead and reevaluate where their careers are and their career options, especially everybody's gotten laid off or furloughed. I know that's two different situations there, but it's a real good opportunity to sit back and say, okay, do I really want to do what I'm doing right now for the rest of my career? So it's a real good time for some introspection and to see really where you want to go for the next 5 to 10 years. As far as business ownership, uh, perfect time right now. And there's a couple reasons for that. Um, you look at the financing picture right now, I mean, there's all kind of money available, albeit it's taken a little bit longer now to get the funds from the banks. So, you know, with the PPP program, uh, and, uh, all the other programs that they signed into law a couple weeks. So it's going to take a little bit longer to get the funding, but the money is there. Interest rates are stupid low. Uh, you know, it's just amazing the kind of money you get right now for a low rate. So, uh, I look at that right now, and then people tell you that it's, uh, you know, really not a good time to start this, but really is a good time to start a business because, um, there's a lot of opportunities out there. I know a couple franchises I work with are, they're doing double-digit sales.

Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. What are some— because, you know, we hear, I mean, a lot, and we don't want to diminish it, a lot of areas are suffering. Make sure, please, uh, share your comments, share your, your questions with us, and, uh, we'll pop those up and we'll get to them as soon as we see them come in. Yeah, some— there are some disasters, but there are some opportunities. You were talking about this the other day.

Yeah, there's, uh, one of the franchise companies I represent, and I represent about 400 of them Uh, but this one, they're doing gangbusters. This is called InXpress. Uh, it's a third-party shipper model. Uh, one of the franchise owners I talked to out in the Midwest told me that he is doing— last month in March, he did normal— what is in December, he was up over 500%. Uh, and it's just shipping. Uh, there's another company that I worked with called Pure Clean, Pure Clean franchise, that they do disaster, uh, mold remediation, uh, sanitation. They're coming in now and they're getting job orders like crazy coming to sanitize businesses. Uh, they can do a top-to-bottom sanitization of the, you know, the equipment, the walls, desks, restrooms, you name it. Uh, their business model is just up tremendously.

Oh man, that's— yeah, that sounds like it's really going to be needed. Yeah.

Oh, absolutely. And they're just kicking it right now. It's really, really good business model. Um, anything to do with, uh, outside right now, uh, the outside business models are really cranking it also.

Here's a— this question came in on—

and I think that's—

yeah, this one came in on text. Let's see, because we're watching other streams here. Are there some companies that are lowering, particularly in the franchise world, that are kind of lowering their bar of entry because You know, a lot of people now are looking at these things, but resources are running tight. So are there adjustments being made to help people get into some of these opportunities?

Some companies, other companies aren't. They have really strong business models, and they can, they can still maintain their business based on their current standards they have right now. Lowering their standards, I wouldn't say lower the standards, maybe lowering some cost of entry. Some of them are doing that, other ones aren't.

What do you think, what do you think going forward? I like the idea, you know, cleaning and sanitation, because what we're hearing now, you know, this isn't going to be the last virus of this type that we face going forward, and you know, one of the big criticisms is we kind of got caught by surprise, right? I don't know so much about that, but Definitely, we're changing the way we're preparing for the future, and there, you know, to me, that, that opportunity to get, you know, for people that are skilled in being able to mitigate this, maybe being able to sanitize, do these things, that seems like a, that seems like a winner. That seems like it's going to be around for a long time.

Oh yeah, I mean, I would have never even thought of a couple weeks ago, just they're cranking it. The models themselves lend to the current situation that we have today. Whereas, you know, vis-à-vis a couple months ago, you would have thought, "Eh, I don't know, you know, maybe it would, maybe it won't." But now it really does lend itself to what's happening today in the pandemic environment. People are more aware now. Everybody is more aware of what they have to do to stay safe, you know, washing the hands, touching things. I mean, just the other day we heard about how many times somebody touches a gas pump.

Oh, right. Mhm.

That, that's incredible, you know. Uh, or how many times you touch a door handle going into an office. Like, just coming into my office here at the house, I bet you I touch that, that handle 17, 18 times an hour going in and out. Yeah, you know. So those kind of business models If you look at them, the current environment just makes so much sense.

I want to make sure I want to get back because we've had a lot of concern, people from the restaurant business. And again, share your comments, share your questions, we'll pop them up as they come in. But before we do that, talk a little bit about what you do. And we've got your website up, right? Is this termainc.com, right?

Yep, that's me. Basically, as I work with C-level execs and other executives, and I help them look at career options. Most of my clients are getting downsized or they're getting, you know, reworked, and they're at an age group where it's hard to find a job. And let's face it, I don't care what anybody says, if you're over the age of 50 and you're making a decent salary, it's really hard to get rehired somewhere. They just don't want to talk to you. You got some 29-year-old in the HR department doing your first interview by phone. So I provide that, that option where we can take all your information. What are you doing right now? What are your likes? What are your dislikes? How much money you want to make? More importantly, where you want to be in the next 5 to 10 years. And then I could tailor make, uh, a search for you based on those parameters where we can find 2 or 3 business models that might make sense for you to take a look at. You know, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. Business ownership's not for everybody, but at least I can provide that safe environment where there's no cost or no obligation, right? And we can look at businesses.

Let's talk about restaurants. I know you've got a background in the restaurant business, and a lot of the restaurant people are here right now. It's been amazing how many made adjustments to takeout, even some of the restaurants that traditionally wouldn't even think about doing that, but that seems to be one adjustment. Of course, with some of the overhead in some of these restaurants and the margins being so slim, how do you think some of these guys are gonna get— what advice would you have to help these guys hunker down and get through this?

Well, just a real good example of one of my real good friends has a restaurant down in Algonquin. It's called the Old Village Inn. And what we did when this first hit, I, I talked to Dean and said, start selling gift certificates right now. I said, give a discount. Let's say it's $50, sell it for $30 or $25 for use in June, July, and pump the heck out of those. Get your email list and market through your email list on that offer. And then also put your hours of operation and limited menu for takeout. Show a picture of the menu item you're, you're focusing on for that evening. So, you know, you have the product available, you know, you can produce it pretty quick and get it out the door to the curbside. There's a number of organizations that are assisting small business restaurant owners right now. There's one that came up the other night, San Pellegrino. Is, is part of a group where they— if you go on their website, uh, they can provide relief for restaurant owners, uh, especially small business restaurant owners, that onesie-twosie kind of guys. There's a ton of money out there for that right now. You just have to be persistent and you got to be a little bit creative and look like— who would have thought, Sam Pell would be offering money for restaurants just to tide them over. Um, the other thing we did is we went right away and started negotiating, negotiating with all the landlords and say, hey, listen, we project this is going to happen maybe for another 2-3 months. Let's do some relief right now. I'll pay you back on a graduated scale, you know, as we get business back up and ramp back up again. So you can graduate those lease payments or those rent payments going forward and you catch up that way instead of having a balloon payment at the end of 2 or 3 months. So you just gotta get creative with that stuff and don't be afraid to ask. You gotta ask.

Yeah, no, I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, if you're waiting, you know, that's a bad sign right now, but it's difficult. And I do hope there's some adjustments made where, you know, allowances for that gap in the payment, because otherwise I don't know how business— I don't know how individuals are going to make it through. And some of the, some of the, uh, you know, because a lot of the credit companies were pretty good at first, it seems like some are getting aggressive. And I understand why, as this thing plays out. But, uh, you know, can't stop— you can't stop the production side of the economy and not stop the, uh, the other side, that, that debt service side. That's dangerous.

I know, you know, there's something else I thought about too during this pandemic. This is a good learning situation for those of us that are, that are through this right now, where, um, you can sit down and you can take a look at, okay, this is almost like a practice retirement. So you're sitting at home, you're thinking about what you want to do, that you're practicing retirement. Do I want to sit outside and just sit around and drink a beer and watch the world go by? And wait for something to happen? Or do you want to look at it proactively and say, okay, so I'm going to be doing the same activity during retirement. Do I want to do this or do I want to do something else? What's going to keep me busy? What's going to keep my brain active? Maybe it is getting into business for yourself. Maybe, excuse me, it's not, but this is a real good opportunity to practice retirement? How do you want to focus your retirement effort?

I'm laughing because I know this is the second time, because in 2008 I erased retirement from my vocabulary. And just when I thought I'd probably reinsert that word, uh, no, I, I thank God I love what I'm doing, because, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't see retirement anytime soon, I'll tell you that. Here's some— Alex is working behind the scenes as always. Thank you very much, Alex. And she's bringing something in from another another stream. What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who just opened a business right before COVID-19? How do they rebound? Yeah, and there are a lot. Oh boy, I think 3 restaurants near where we live opened literally just days before the, the thing hit.

Yeah, hopefully, uh, they didn't go into their opening being undercapitalized. Uh, that's, that's really going to be difficult. Uh, typically when I counsel my business owners we look at having at least 6 to 8 months worth of capital, working capital, put aside, you know, to pay the rent, to pay the light, to pay the payroll. So we're building that into their business plan, 6 to 8 months worth of— I call it hurricane fund, where, you know, God forbid something should happen so they can continue to operate. And that should give you enough time to get back on track. Now, for those folks that haven't put that plan into place, Again, I would strongly talk to your lenders, number one. Strongly talk to your, you know, vendors. Vendors will work with you. They don't want to see you go out of business. And I would definitely look at crazy guerrilla marketing once this thing starts to settle down a little bit. What can you do in the way of guerrilla marketing to drive sales? Um, you know, email lists are phenomenal. Sending out, uh, offers via email, phenomenal. I know there's, there's— and I don't know which app it is, but I know one of the restaurants we go to, we went there for the first time, used my credit card. I got home and there was email from that restaurant thanking me for my business that night and also gave me a copy. See, did I give them my email address? No, but it automatically populated Now that is a really good marketing tool where you can then put your specials up there, or, or, hey, you know, I'm back, let's have an I'm back party, what can we do? So there's a number of ways you can get creative with that, and you're just going to sit down with, with other like-minded individuals and you can have a peer group. I would get a couple restaurant— if talking about restaurants, Jim, I get a couple restaurants owner in a circle crack a beer or cup of coffee and say, okay, what can we do as a group to create, you know, on our marketing efforts? What's going to help everybody? And I've heard of a couple different businesses tag-teaming, uh, with each other. Uh, down in Portland, I heard a good, uh, story about— it was a, uh, like a, a wine shop and then like a bread shop that they really just kind of put things together and offered a special together drive-through outside in front of the store. So you're getting some bread and some wine, you know, and, and there's a number of creative things you could do with that, but you got it down and say, okay, what can we do as a group to sustain ourselves during this period and beyond?

Yeah. And listen, if you want to get in touch with Dante to solicit his services, uh, there's the link right there, uh, Terma Inc. .com. That's an I, not an L. termainc.com. And, uh, he's— like I said, he's a great guy. He's been a great mentor to us for, for many, many, many, many years now. It seems to have gone by, huh?

Many years now. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a— been a good time. That's why it doesn't seem like a long time, right?

Okay, hang on just a second. We're getting a notice from Facebook. If you're watching on Facebook, it's a little hitchy. StreamYard just told us that they're having a little bit of trouble, uh streaming over there, but they should usually get that corrected within a few seconds, so hopefully you'll be back on. And also, always please make sure that you're chiming in with your comments and your suggestions. If you're watching on the replay too, chime in with your comments too. We do our best to get questions and comments to our guests afterwards, and we watch those threads for quite a while. So just because you're watching on the replay doesn't mean you can't chime in on the conversation. Let's talk about a little bit about you know, the entrepreneurs of necessity— well, I'm going to say entrepreneurs of necessity. I used to call them entrepreneurs of desperation, and that's not a dig because I've been there too. But, you know, in 2008 we saw a lot of this. We're going to see a lot of this coming out of this as resources get tight. What are some opportunities that people get— can get into that don't have a high threshold, that don't depend on a lot of capital exposure and a big investment up front? Are there some opportunities for those guys?

Yes, there are. Um, I would recommend, um, I know I've got a list of about 20 of them that you can get into, uh, rather inexpensively. And by that I mean for like under $75 grand. Uh, typically what they'd want is the franchise fee up front in cash, and the rest you can finance. Um, prior to the COVID-19 just based on your credit score. I have a number of lenders I worked with that can get you about $50,000, $60,000 just based on your credit score. If you have a credit score over 750, they were lending money like crazy because they know you're going to pay it back. You got that kind of credit score. Um, so there's, uh, I would recommend that you, you get in touch with a coach, professional coach. Uh, don't go to somebody that's going to charge you a fee Uh, that's— I wouldn't do that. That's bogus. There's too many of us out there that don't— that do it based on our professional qualifications. So I mean, you always, you know, get in touch with me, that's fine, you know, we can talk. But there, uh, there's a number of them out there. I call them sleeper franchises. They're not real sexy, but they throw cash, and that's the name of the game. If you want to get into a business that you can have fun with and it's going to throw cash. There's some people need to look out for it, but there's a number of models you can find.

Yeah, what are the— what, you don't have to name names, what are some of the areas that are difficult that, uh, for example, I know a lot of people are trying to get into that express driving mode and there's some good companies and some bad companies out there we're hearing, uh, some of them, you know, you, you have— you work 60, 70 hours and you're, you're making less than someone's making part-time. So what are some ones to look out for?

Ah man, there's a bunch of them. Uh, I would go through the Better Business Bureau, find the name of the company you want to take a look at, go through your Better Business Bureau, or check with SCORE. There's a number of professionals at SCORE that can give you very good information, or you can research through the SBDC, uh, Small Business Development Corporation. They would have information on those businesses. If it's a franchise, check with the IFA, the International Franchise Association. If they're a member of that, they've been well vetted, and you can find out very quickly about, uh, you know, who they are and what they're doing and if they're a very viable company. You can also call existing franchise owners in that business. You can look up on the internet different locations and call up, you know, whoever owns the Jimmy John's franchise and say, hey, I'm thinking of building one out of town. Do you like the franchise? Do you like the company? Are you getting the support that you want, um, or are they treating you like terrible? So, uh, I would look at the IFA, the SBDC, SCORE. So there's a number of organizations that will give you very good information about a potential company that you're thinking about. And then there's also me.

Oh, we lost you for a second there.

Did I lose you, Jim?

We lost you for a second.

I know we did. We lost you for a second.

Everybody and his brother's on the internet today, right? We're probably—

Oh no. Yeah, it is. Well, what can you do?

No, it's all right. Hey, listen, I like what you said earlier that being in business for yourself, it's not for everybody. And you know, there's no shame in that. I mean, some people are more comfortable with security, or at least the notion of security of a regular job with a paycheck and whatnot, not have the risk and the exposure. But you know, you've been in business for yourself almost all your life. What do you like the most about it? What do you think people really need? What are some of the qualifications people need to get into this rough? Because you know what? I can't remember the last time I actually had a job, so I don't remember what it feels like to be an employee.

Yeah, well, yeah, it's been a long time for me too. No, I think it takes a special set of skills, basically. You got to be willing to get up in the morning. You got to be willing to pick up the phone. You got to be willing to talk to customers. You got to be able to take a lot of nos. You got to have that Teflon shell. You know, being a business for yourself has a lot of benefits. I control my schedule, I control my income. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not good, but you know, you have a lot of control in working for yourself. You can pick and choose working with clients that you want to work with if you have that business model. You're really developing the community too. I know at one point in time I helped open more businesses in one year than we did in the whole state at one point in time, years ago, uh, open several different franchises up here in Maine. But there you can give back to the community, uh, you, you can, you can work with college students, you can work with other business owners. So there's so many different things about being in business for yourself. The relationships you develop with other business owners, like the relationship you and I have. We've known each other for a long time. We can bounce ideas off of each other. That's— it's almost like a, a senior peer group. So there's many advantages of being in business for yourself besides controlling your own destiny. And I think that's the number one— you're controlling your own destiny.

Sink or swim, right? Yeah. And I mean that because sometimes people worry about the failures and whatnot. But the point being is that, you know, if, you know, you know, I'm not a lollipops and puppy dogs guy. When people say, oh, there's no such thing as failure, no such thing as a mistake. No, there, there are. And when people say, oh, it's just a lesson. Well, yeah, if you wring that lesson out of it, right? And they're not always easy to deal with. But the point being that we can, you know, we can look ourselves in the mirror and make adjustments say, hey, what do I need to do going forward, rather than completely depending on someone else's decision-making for our future, right?

Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, what's the old adage? Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, right? You gotta be, you gotta be willing to do other things and challenge yourself. Challenge yourself. I know I challenge myself every day. You know, what do I need done this week or next week? What do I need to get done next year? Basically, when is my retirement date? What am I going to do in my retirement? Right now we're practicing retirement in the pandemic.

Well, that's because you live on beautiful Lake Sebago out there. I've seen some of your retirement practice pictures. That's—

yeah, sometimes it's really nice.

There you go. There you go.

Again, I like making phone calls from my boat in the summer, right?

There it is. Well, listen, as we wind things down a little bit, let's make sure people understand how to get in touch with you again. Of course, this is your website, uh, that's an I, not an L, termainc.com. Um, LinkedIn. How else would you like people to reach out to you?

Um, cell phone's good. Uh, cell phone is, uh Eric at 412-916-9919. It's 412-916-9919.

Or send me an email at Dante@termainc.com, and he'll take you out on his boat.

I can't promise that.

Depends how much you've got to invest in a franchise, right? I think if I should— absolutely, I think if I showed up with a couple of— with a cashier's check for, let's say, about $2.5 mil, you could probably take me out on the boat, right?

Oh, Jim, I'd take you down to Florida on the boat. What are you kidding me?

There you go. As we're winding things up, I saw a bunch of people just jump on now. Thanks for your support, and thanks for, you know, encouraging us to keep these live streams going. If you have any questions or comments for Dante, just put them in your comment area on YouTube or Facebook. We'll post them right up as we wind up here and we'll do our best to get, get those questions answered. So, you know, one more thing that I wanted to ask you, Dante, was, you know, we talk about all the time what's, what's so nice about being an entrepreneur, but I think, you know, again, if we wring the lesson out, it's so informative. What was the biggest challenge you ever had as an entrepreneur and how did you get yourself through it?

Hmm, making the decision to become an entrepreneur. Uh, I was in corporate America for 22 years and, uh, we had a very nice position and then got downsized and, uh, went with a quick startup. A friend of mine had to start up— we did the startup, we did really well, and then he decided to, uh, bankrupt that company. So at that point in time, I had to make a decision: do I want to work for somebody else, or do I want to work for myself? Do I want to control my destiny? And I think that was the window that opened and said, you know, I'm tired. I'm tired of other people pulling my strings. If I'm gonna do it, I'm doing my own things and I'm going to control my own destiny. I think that was the toughest decision, to sit down and look at and really evaluate me and say, where do I want to be? And just to make that decision, say, I'm doing it, period, do it.

And you haven't looked back since? Once or twice, maybe?

Not at all.

There you go.

Yeah, maybe once or twice, but you know, I still have a lot of my good, uh, friends are still executives in corporate.

Yeah.

And we chat every now and again, right? Uh, doing that kind of peer group, and I banging ideas off each other. Uh, and I say, no, I ain't going back.

You can't, you can't drag me back kicking and screaming. So one more time, yeah, to reach Dante, just go to termainc.com, uh, or roll back a little bit if you're watching the replay. He gave you his phone number. I couldn't type fast enough to get it up there. My bad. Dante, one more time. Yeah, go ahead.

412-916-9919.

There you go. Dante, thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us today.

Jim, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Oh, no worries. And like I said, if you're watching on the replay, if you got more questions for Dante, just let us know, put them in the comments area. We'll do our best to get to them. Our next one is going to be, uh, Chad Helmanak, uh, National Federation of Credit Unions on Thursday, and then Jan Rutherford, leadership expert and author, on Friday. So again, thank you all so much for encouraging us to keep this going and to support the Sensei Leader Movement. I should tell you too, we still have our free offer for Black Belt level membership in the Sensei Leader Movement. Okay, just send an email right now. We've had a little trouble with the link, so send an email to jim@thesenseileader.com. Jim@thesenseileader.com. We'll make sure you get that link. And the best part about that program, you're going to get a ton of downloads right away, but the best part of the program is our live monthly call. So You don't want to miss that. And your membership— somebody asked, will, will they revert back to the regular price after this situation is over? No, if you join now for free, it remains free as long as you stay active. Okay, so I think that's a pretty good deal. So again, Dante, thank you again one more time. Really appreciate you being with us today.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you.