Alex Fees: I'm Alex Fees on Small Business Television. We are coming to you from Cleveland Ohio at the 2008 COSE Small Business Conference. COSE, that’s C-O-S-E, the Council of Smaller Enterprises, a group that yields to the experience of its membership.
Joel Libava is with us, his company is Franchise Selection Specialist. Joe, good to meet you.
Joel Libava: Thank you, nice to meet you too.
Alex Fees: Tell me about Franchise Selection Specialist.
Joel Libava: Well it’s a long name but one that says exactly I do.
Alex Fees: Does it fits on the business card?
Joel Libava: Yeah sure it does. I specialize in helping people select franchises based on their personality traits, the investment amount they're comfortable with and what they want their life to look like.
COSE has been wonderful because COSE really is into this buy local theme it fits in with what I do. A lot of franchise consultants in the market work by phone and they don’t necessarily work local. Even though a lot of people want me to branch out and work to other parts of the country I really specialize on working in Northeast Ohio because I feel that I know Northeast Ohio, I know what kind of franchises work, what kind of franchises don’t work, what might be fads, what might work well in Phoenix and LA probably aren’t going to work in the Midwest. So that’s why feel is really important to buy local and use local consultants.
Alex Fees: Our membership in COSE in that case would certainly make sense. COSE is centered in 8 to 10 counties in Northeast Ohio. Why do you think there's a difference between franchising in this section of the country as oppose to west or further east, is cultural?
Joel Libava: It’s cultural just because a franchise is really popular in California doesn’t necessary mean that it’s going to translate to the Midwest. The Midwest is still stake and potatoes. It’s not smoothies yet. So a lot of franchises on the west coast that are especially food related are a little fetish for a more traditional Midwest scenario.
I know that perspective franchise buyers that don’t know what they're doing yet and they might buy into something that just won't work here. I have them fill up a questionnaire that I developed and then we have face to face meetings in my office. If it makes sense for both of us to do that and I match them to opportunities base on what I'm learning from them.
More importantly once I present a couple of ideas and they say yes they like to inspect and explore them a little more I teach them how to do the research. I even wrote an e-book called The Essential Steps to Researching a Franchise Opportunity which they get as part of the process. I show them how to safely find out what the facts are.
Most people have no idea what they want that’s usually when they contact me and I kind of coach and guide them through the process.
Alex Fees: Franchising goes through trends does it not?
Joel Libava: Sure it does.
Alex Fees: What's hot Joe?
Joel Libava: Service, service, service. The baby boomers are aging they need products and services to keep them healthy, to keep them mobile and also the dueling couple is still such a focus of franchise ores. For instance my wife and I, we both work. I have my own little business, we have no time. We have no time for our child, our dog, our family so if we can find products and services that can give us some quality of life back we are willing to pay for that.
My late father was with COSE a few years ago, I recently joined them after they called me and said “Joe we need you to write about franchising, you're the guy in Cleveland.” So I'm on their side as one of the experts and I do a lot of articles.
Alex Fees: So, you're member of kind of advisory committee now as well.
Joel Libava: Yes.
Alex Fees: Where can people get more information about Franchise Selection Specialist?
Joel Libava: At franchiseselectionspecialist.com.
Alex Fees: All right good deal, good luck to you.
Joel Libava: Thank you very much.
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