Alex Fees: Franchises seem to be everywhere these days, entrepreneurs interested in franchising have more than 120 lines of businesses to choose from and investment ranges at start as low as $10,000.00 and top more than a million. But money is not the only consideration in franchising, do you have the right personality fit.
Our guest today can help you decide if a franchised small business is right for you. Franchise Expert Dick Rennick is an award winning founder of a 360 unit franchises system and former chairman of the International Franchise Association. Rennick is recognized as one of the leading experts in franchising. Dick, welcome to SBTV.com.
Dick Rennick: Thank you, sir.
Alex Fees: First of all what is this 360 unit thing I’m hearing about here? Tell me about the history.
Dick Rennick: That’s a little company that I founded about 30 years ago, 32 years ago called the American Leak Detection. We run about 800 trucks in 46 states and 13 foreign countries and as our name implies we found concealed water leaks.
Alex Fees: And many different kinds of infrastructure.
Dick Rennick: Absolutely. From municipal water systems to backyard swimming pools.
Alex Fees: And how did you get from that into franchising as a whole.
Dick Rennick: Well, I became involve in the International Franchises Association and began learning my tenureship in franchising by writing on the shoulders of great pioneers, the likes of Bill Rosenburg, the founder of Dunkin Donuts and the founder of the International Franchise Association, the likes of friends like Sid Feltenstein who own the A&W Root Beer and Long John Silvers and now is the owner of Bill Taco and many other giants in the industry and I just got a scope to this folks as I could over the years. Dave Thomas and Michael Sides and Matt Siberts and all the people that are very well versed in franchising and I just became very knowledgeable and here I am.
Alex Fees: Well Dick, some of those very named you mentioned are certainly examples of an in depending group but that may no always be the best fit for franchising, is that right?
Dick Rennick: That’s true.
Alex Fees: Why?
Dick Rennick: Well sometimes people don’t fit because they’re too entrepreneurial and they really can’t follow a proven plan, you know, they don’t want to take someone’s idea and grow with it. They don’t like the yellow big M if you will, like for the McDonald’s, I want to make that green and put polka dots on it. You can’t do that.
Alex Fees: That sounds like business models stuff. I mean you find some people are just too much of a rebel, too much of a—they’re just too far out there on the edge.
Dick Rennick: Well, I wouldn’t call them rebels, I would say that they just like there own ideas and thoughts, I wouldn’t call him rebels at all and I would say that just some of them don’t have the where with all to get behind the franchise profile and what the franchisor is looking for.
The franchisor is the company that work for franchise and they’re looking to build a team and to build the brand and they need everybody going the same way doing the same thing and trying to build that brand so that they can enhance not only the value of the company but the value of the franchisee, so that when they get ready to retire, they pass it unto their kids, they’ve made a significant investment.
Alex Fees: Okay, some stability there.
Dick Rennick: Exactly.
Alex Fees: Well Dick, franchise business concepts include healthcare, art education, hotels, personal services, real estate, automotive, travel, maintenance and construction. Did I miss any?
Dick Rennick: Yeah you missed about a 100 but that’s pretty good.
Alex Fees: Well, short of that, how does a person find the right fit, you know how do you decide what is right for you?
Dick Rennick: Well, you begin by doing research, you know, if you’re used to working outside you probably want to have some kind of a franchise that’s mobile and by a mobile franchise I mean something that’s a service track that you buy a brand that you can travel from location to location and provide a service, maybe something like a screen mobile or a drain cleaning service, or a carpet cleaning service or maintenance to people’s homes like Service Master and those kinds of things.
So they have to figure out do they want to work inside of a building, do they want to cook food, do they want to be outside, do they want change their vocation and really make a change, then there are several places that they can go to find out what’s next.
Alex Fees: Well Dick, where does somebody go to begin this process? Where do you recommend potential franchise owners begin there personal research?
Dick Rennick: Perfect. I would suggest in the beginning that they go to Franchise.org. Franchise.org has over 1800 franchise opportunities online and they can scroll through them, restaurant industry, fast food industry, clothing industry, I mean you name it. They’ve got it all and then they can begin to fair it out, some things that might be of interest to them. I would also recommend that they go to three franchise shows that’s put on by MFV Expo’s
Alex Fees: MFV Expo’s
Dick Rennick: And they’re at www.mfvexpo.com in conjunction with being sponsored by the international franchises association. We have one every late spring, early summer in Washington DC at Washington DC Convention Center. We have one within just weeks after that in Miami Florida and then we have one in October or early November in Los Angles and you can find that by going to either the MFV Expo site or the international franchise association site and it will tell you where these expo’s are. And the thing that’s very important about going to these expo’s is that there will be hundreds and hundreds of franchise opportunities there that people are trying to get people interested in their brands.
So you can compare brand to brand, you can compare service to service, you can compare everything that you wanted to know plus there’s a huge array of periodicals that are there to be handed out by the international franchises association, given out, sold, I mean you name it. That’s a great place to go to begin together information and then meeting potential franchise brand that are trying to award their franchises by the people that are coming in.
Alex Fees: All right, so good resources as well as personal experiences there.
Dick Rennick: Absolutely.
Alex Fees: All right, Dick Well, thank you for joining us. Look for other segments on franchising and small business from Dick Rennick here on SBTV.com. You can learn more about Dick and his company by going online to TeamRennic.com. This is SBTV.com. Small Business is our only business.
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