How To Build A Successful International Franchise In The Expert Care Industry

Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. And today we are going to talk feet. And I got to say, I'm really excited about today's guest because I've had plantar fasciitis now for 3 and a half years. And I think today's guest has got a solution. So if anyone out there has got issues with their feet, you're going to love today's episode. We're going to talk to John Protheroe, who is the president and CEO of a company called Foot Solutions. And John, welcome to the show.

And welcome. I didn't know we were going to talk about feet, but, uh, I'll do my best.

Well, it all comes down to what we can walk on in the end, I guess. But John, we're going to talk about feet, but obviously that's not the most exciting. We're going to talk about how you're building a global franchise, but how you've actually bought into Foot Solutions because you believed in it so much, and how you've been building this now to create value, and how to use technology to build greater value and a whole much much more decide. John, so tell us about Foot Solutions first and what kind of product you're offering to those people in the world that have got issues with their feet to start with.

Yeah, so we're a foot wellness retailer. We have about 80 locations globally. It's a caring expert service business. It's not a, it's not a product business. We, we sell truly custom orthotics and healthy footwear. And but the reason you go to A Foot Solutions is because you have a problem like plantar fasciitis or whatever it is. And our people are very highly trained. A lot of them are what are called podorthists, which are people who are certified to design custom orthotics, as well as select footwear. And so folks come into A Foot Solutions looking for healthy footwear, or they come in and say, look, I've got this issue, my knee is hurting. My back is hurting, my feet are hurting, and we'll find a way to, we'll try to find a way to alleviate that pain and get you sort of aligned properly. We're really trained very highly in foot biomechanics, and so a lot of doctors trust us. We get a lot of referrals from podiatrists, physical therapists, chiropractors, you name it, and we do a lot of work in the U.S. with Medicare as well, with folks who are diabetic and have foot issues related to diabetes.

And it says here on your website, John, that there are over 100 tendons, muscles, and ligaments between 26 bones, 33 joints, 7,000 nerve endings, and 250,000 sweat glands. So that's pretty complicated. Tell us, as an entrepreneur, you have been involved in M&A beforehand, and you and I were actually both in Beijing at the same time, we realize as well. Tell us a little bit about the journey of how you got to buying Foot Solutions, and then we'll talk about how you're building that as a global franchise.

Well, I really worked as, uh, as an intermediary for about a dozen years, so working on the buy and sell side as a consultant. And I mentioned to you earlier, I kind of did some co-investing on some of the buy-side deals, which was a good experience, but also got a little bit tired of being the guy Telling people what they should do rather than being the one actually pulling the levers. And so I left that industry and started working for a company that was industrial distribution business for a while and ran that business for a while and then started raising money. Felt like I was real dangerous because I had the operations experience and the buy and sell side experience and started raising money to buy a portfolio of companies. Really lower middle market kind of things where you could add some value real quick, buying in at sort of $1 million, $1 million to $2 million in earnings and turning it into something that was really special and very valuable. But during that process, a friend of mine called and said, there's this company called Foot Solutions. The owner is interested in selling and, and would you take a look at it? I'd never heard of it, but did a little bit of diligence on it and thought, boy, this is, this is actually quite a niche. It's been around for 20 years and it's kind of the best kept secret in the market because they're really solving a lot of foot problems for people as well as being a go-to place when people just want to take care of their bodies because of the foundational health aspect. And I love that it was a service business. It wasn't a product business. It was, you know, a caring expert service. So, asked to meet the owner. The owner agreed to sell to us. I called my investors and said, I want to run this one. This one's got some real legs. And so we bought it and then we bought up some franchise locations from owners that were retiring. We bought a couple of technology elements and then we bought another company called Happy Feet Plus down in Florida and built it up to a scale where we could have a nice corporate team and executive team that could support selling franchises again. So that's what we're doing. The process we're in now is we're building out new franchises and selling franchises. At this point.

And just to be clear though, John, you say it's a caring experts business, but you're also, if I understand it rightly, you're scanning people's feet and then you're also doing 3D printing of the insoles or the inserts that people need, you know, people like me to help them to recover it. Can you just tell us a little bit about the technology that you've got in Foot Solutions and what role that plays in making the business So attractive that you wanted to run it as opposed to just invest in it?

Yeah, so one of the reasons it was attractive is because it's a very antiquated market. The, the way that most companies are building custom orthotics is the same way that they were building custom orthotics 50 years ago. And there's nothing wrong with 50 years ago. And as a matter of fact, a lot of those orthotics are very good. But we figured there was a better way to do it. And so we found, we did a search globally to see what people were doing. We found a company over in Europe that didn't have much of a presence here in the States and licensed their technology here in the States. It's a very smart CAD/CAM software. So the customer comes in and there's a digital 3D laser scan of their feet that's, you know, top-notch. There's other laser scans out there. We think this is the best, if not one of the best. But that scan, along with an intake form filled out by the expert. So the expert does an analysis of the gait and the feet and posture and lifestyle and the whole bit and fills out an intake form for the customer. And so the scan, the 3D scan, goes to a design team along with an intake form, which contains recommendations from the expert. And that allows us to design within a CAD/CAM software that was built specifically for custom foot orthotics, which is unique. CAD/CAM softwares for that, for this industry are just repurposed. And then that feeds into a 3D printer and we print, we do some milling because some doctors will prescribe milling still, but we're moving mostly to 3D printed.

And John, it sounds as though it's a little bit like opticians that will obviously make a lens custom for your eyes. Would that be a fair parallel?

Yeah, that's right. And we always compare it to if you go to one of the department stores and buy a suit off the rack, you get a, you know, an over-the-counter insole would be the example. You know, it might fit fine, then you might look good and it, and it's better than nothing. But if you want the optimal health for your feet, you'll go ahead and get something designed specifically for your feet. And, you know, we might spend $300 on a pair of jeans that don't do anything for your health. You know, you might want to think about what you're wearing in terms of foundational wealth.

Yeah, I absolutely agree. Are you able to say what sort of costs do inserts have? Is that possible?

Yeah, so we have our over-the-counter insoles are more medical grade, the ones that we just buy off the shelf that we can recommend to you. And that's, that's fine. And it's better than the alternative. Those are about $120 apiece. Our custom orthotics, there's a range, but they're generally around $400 apiece.

Right. Okay. So a bit like a well-made pair of glasses as well in terms of taking care of yourself. And you say foundational health. Let's move on to the business side, John, if we can. As the president and CEO of Foot Solutions, which is footsolutions.com, what makes a great franchise?

Yeah, there's a few things. One, I would say the system needs to be clean and airtight. So you've got to have a very— you've got to have a playbook, so to speak. for what you do. And it needs to be something that you could hand to someone else, a reasonably competent person that you could train, that then they could go and do what you do because the system is written and clear and specific. The second thing I would say is you want to make sure you're differentiated. And that ties into barriers to entry. You need to have something that's special about what you're doing because I mean, there are a lot of franchises who sell hamburgers. You know, I'm not saying you can't franchise something that a lot of other people are doing, but in terms of looking at value as a potential fran— if I was a potential franchisee and, you know, being invited to join your franchise, the first question I would ask is, can someone do this very similar right down the street from me with just another brand? And if the answer to that is yes, well, then there's obviously a greater risk profile or a higher risk profile. than otherwise would be. On top of that though, you might have a really nice brand and a really nice marketing strategy. And so you may be selling burgers, but you might have found a way to pitch your burgers as something, as something very different. So I'm not saying you can't be a franchise if you, if you're not different, but you've got to find some way to differentiate yourself and how it's branded or, or, or the product or the technology.

Right. And presumably that's where your CAD software gives the differentiation for your franchise holders to just a generic company that's doing orthotics.

Yeah, it's partly that, but the barrier to entry in our business is really the training and the expertise. We have about 70 hours of online training plus quizzes and tests that people take before they can be talking to customers. We have a enormous amount of highly trained people in the business who act as mentors for new associates. If you walk into a Foot Solutions, you're talking to someone who knows what they're talking about. And that's really the differentiator. And you can't just recreate that out of thin air.

And I think that you said on your website about you, you own this space with very confident language as well. In terms of The marketing. I've got gone. What are you gonna say, John?

No. No. I, I, I do think we, from a retail perspective, we are the foot wellness experts. I mean, you can go to a doctor and get someone who knows more about feet for sure. Doctors do, but doctors refer people to us to do what we do for them because doctors aren't, you know, selecting footwear typically, or, and a lot of times they're not making custom orthotics.

Right. Well, and, and I can see it's a really very specialist part of the body. Right? Well, it's one of the most complex parts of the body. So it really needs that, that specialist support. On the website, I can't see, for example, a press center, John. You know, I, I like to have a look and see what people are doing for marketing. Can you just tell us, how are you building the brand awareness for Foot Solutions? We've, we've delved into what the product is and what makes a franchise special, which is great, but what about getting franchisees to be interested and to know about you and for them to get customers to come to their franchise, because a big part of the proposition of a franchise is that the overall brand will draw clients in. So could you just tell us how you're doing that?

Well, the brand has been around over 23 years, so there's quite a bit of organic traffic to the website. There's a large customer base that already knows who we are. On top of that, we have our own internal marketing agency. So we tried agencies for a while, didn't really like the results or Or the, the way it was done. I can say that I can go more into that if you want me to. But so we have our own internal agency that's doing all the traditional, you know, Google AdWords and digital ad buys and traditional where appropriate. I would say we're also going more in terms of a hub and spoke model. So the business can have a halo effect. If you're 20 minutes down from another location, you can have a halo effect on each other. And so building the brand out regionally has been a very important focus of ours. We also do sponsorships. So we sponsor the Pro Pickleball Association, which is a, I don't know if you play pickleball, but it's the fastest growing sport in the world. It's amazing, amazing sport. We all compete in it. We wear our Foot Solutions shirts, you know, and at the front it says feet hurt, on the back it says mine don't, you know, footsolutions.com. We have a, we have a staff member who's a senior VP whose main role really is brand building and impact sales. So we're partnering with organizations, breast cancer organizations for sponsoring walks. We do a lot of the sort of local guerrilla marketing thing. In fact, our latest hire was a local marketing specialist who we think is gonna have an even bigger impact on that. So it's really an all of the above approach, but it seems to be working and we, we do generate quite a bit of traffic to our, to our website and into our stores.

Okay, John. So, you know, I like to ask people if there's a mistake that they've made, or not in a critical way, but a lesson that you've learned. You touched on the, on the agency side. Is that something that you feel hasn't gone quite as well as planned?

Yes. Yeah, I think agencies, albeit some are well-intentioned, I just don't think the model Works that well because you can oftentimes get pitched the, sort of the investment banking model where the managing partner pitches you and then the intern does the deal. It hasn't been that, wasn't that dramatic with us when we used agencies, but, and a lot of them did decent work. But the fact is, if you use an agency, you're paying fees that you could use towards staff. And you've got someone whose part-time job is to deal with your company. And so, you know, we decided, why don't we have some people focused full-time on our company and use the, you know, the cash that we're paying agencies to build our own internal team?

I think that that's a very fair criticism. And often for the agency, they're pitching and they bring in the senior person because that's who the client expects to see, but the budget doesn't match the senior person being involved day to day. That's one of the structural challenges having been on the agency side, that the client's budget doesn't match the expectation.

In that model, the answer is always spend more. You know, if it's not working, spend more. Well, hold on, it's not working. Why would we spend more on something that's not working, right?

Structurally, agencies can bring more people to, to a problem, but if it becomes sort of a lower person who's basically just an outsourced hire, if you're a big enough company as you are with Foot Solutions, then having an in-house can really make a lot of sense, especially as then they have product knowledge, market knowledge as well, which often agencies, you know, really can't do in the same way.

You have to have the scale. If you're starting small, you're going to have to go with an agency, but if you get enough scale, you can bring your own team in, and that's always been our goal.

Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. So there does come a time when an agency has value, and also when we've had clients that are doing multi-regional work, for example, and then they need different languages, for example, and couldn't possibly hire someone in each market. John Protheroe, as CEO and President of Foot Solutions, if there's one piece of advice that you'd give to my fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs on business and getting noticed— and you've run many businesses in many roles and been in many countries too— what would be your guidance to us about what really moves the needle and what really to consider?

A lot of branding is focused on defining yourself, you know, and defining yourself for the customer. And so you'll see, let's talk about who we are, right? And that's a very important slide in every slide deck. The first thing is who we are, right? Well, that's important, but you have to make the transition, the important transition into why should the customer care? And so if you think about If you think about, you know, we're a foot wellness retailer and I tell a customer we're a foot wellness retailer, then in the back of their mind, if they're not saying it out loud, they're thinking, what do I care? And so the next part of your branding exercise needs to be, what am I, what problem am I solving for the customer? Why should the customer want to come see me? Why does the customer care that I'm a foot wellness retailer? Well, we, you know, when we were doing our pre-call, you talked about your Plantar fasciitis, right? If I say, you know, we, our brand is we solve problems for people who have foot pain. Okay, well, now, now we're talking, right? Because Jim's been dealing with plantar fasciitis this whole time for 3 years, right? And so you're gonna, you're gonna be motivated to come and see us. So I know you talk a lot about that chasm and crossing the chasm between the, you know, the early adopters and the folks who, who make the more practical choice to come and visit you on a regular basis or use your service or product on a regular basis. And I think that's, that's the key. The key is how, you know, foot wellness retailers are all well and good, but if it can't help me, I'm not interested. And so the value proposition has to be brought in very early. What are, what are we doing? So our, our value proposition is your feet are the foundation of your health. Let us take care of them for you. And so we're bringing in the health and wellness industry, and we're letting you know that we're a service that can take care of you.

John, I feel reassured and also very happy. Like, you've got 2 franchises in the UK, so I'm gonna be looking for those.

Yeah, tell them I said hey.

I'm gonna say I, I will do. I'll tell them that you said you're going to give me a discount as well, probably.

Friends and family, you gotta go to a corporate store for that. You gotta go to a corporate store.

Okay, I gotta come away to Alpharetta, Georgia for that. And any other sort of parting wisdom as an entrepreneur that you wanted to share for those people running businesses and aspiring to greatness and to success.

So, I've been on a few podcasts of people and a lot of it's related to people who are really driven and ambitious. And there's nothing wrong with being driven and ambitious. I count myself among that population. And I remember early on in my career really getting out of college and thinking, boy, I don't know anything. I'm lost. I need to read and consume as much as I can. So, I read I even went so far as to read economics textbooks. And I went and read the Austrian economists and I went and read, I found a list of books, top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century and read through those books and thought, okay, well now I have a bunch of book knowledge and now let me go read management textbooks on how to manage things. And so I was entirely focused really on success as I had defined it at the moment. If your goal is to make a bunch of money and be successful, that's a perfectly fine, fine goal. But if that's your goal and that's the end, end-all be-all for you, you're liable to find yourself waking up having accomplished your goal, but being entirely unsuccessful with the rest of your life. And in fact, you can wreck your life going after what you're going after. So rather than focusing entirely on how do I make money and how do I make money faster, you gotta find a way to To feed your soul. You've gotta find a way to find who you are and what really matters to you and to the people around you. You gotta find a way to love your neighbor while you're doing that. And so if you do hit, if you do cross that chasm and you get to a point where your business is really crushing it, you haven't lost yourself. Because if you don't solve that problem, if you don't establish and ground yourself spiritually, I would say. Prior to, you know, making that money and prior to getting to where you want to go, you're going to wreck your whole life. So it's just a— I'm fortunate I didn't wreck my whole life. Thank God. Still have a loving family and loving wife and, and good friends. But I've seen it enough. I've seen it enough to know that, that there is a, there's another way that can go. And you can find yourself being a billionaire who's completely unhappy. And unfulfilled. So that's all I would say.

John, very wise words. And thank you for sharing that very, very honestly and transparently. And I think also it's a very good reminder that it really isn't worth owning the world and losing your soul, right? That we're on, as entrepreneurs, we're doing this for many, many reasons. And if it's only for the money, then it's not going to be rewarding for you. John, if people want to find out more about you, how can they connect with you?

Best thing to do is go to footsolutions.com. That'll tell you all, all you need to know about us. If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm always happy to connect with folks as long as you're not an IT salesperson.

Or a podcast promoter in my case. John Protheroe, President and CEO of footsolutions.com. Thank you for agreeing to come on this show and possibly give me a solution to my plantar fasciitis. So thank you so much.

Yes, sir. Let me know how it goes, Jim. Thank you.

I will do. Thank you so much for listening, and thanks to John for sharing. He's joined us from Alpharetta in Georgia, and I'm sure that you've got some great takeaways from here. We talked about franchising and what a business opportunity it is, but also what you need in order to make it a successful one, but also talking about in a more sober way what we also have to focus on in terms of wellness as entrepreneurs and making it part of our calling to be happy inside ourselves and not reliant on the wealth to give us the happiness and the satisfaction. So hopefully you found this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur helpful for you to keep going. If you have, please do review it and follow the show so you don't miss another guest. I have these amazing guests like John on the show, and they're here for you and me to learn from. So until we meet again, I just do encourage you to take care of yourself, and to keep on communicating. Thanks for listening.

That was our first take, right? We have to do another one.