0:01

I'm fascinated with entrepreneurs

0:01

and small business owners.

0:06

Plus, I love baseball.

0:08

Every show I sit down with a small

0:11

business owner and we discuss

0:11

their running the bases of

0:15

entrepreneurship. We throw the ball around on

0:19

strategy, management, execution

0:19

and innovation.

0:21

Plus, a little fun baseball tug.

0:25

Hey, thanks for joining us today.

0:28

Settelain, grab your cracker jacks

0:28

and you know what they say.

0:32

Play ball. And it's a great day for a ball

0:35

game. Hey, thanks for joining us today. I'm Randy Rohde and you are

0:36

listening to running the bases

0:39

with small businesses and today's

0:39

guest comes from a long line of

0:45

entrepreneurs. One might say it is truly in his

0:50

bloodline. A third generation family business with over a dozen brands and 1600

0:52

franchise locations worldwide.

0:57

Our guest grew up in the franchise

0:57

business and as he says,

1:03

franchising is all I knew.

1:06

His work experience has humble

1:08

beginnings. His parents had him working at the

1:10

local franchise locations doing

1:10

all of the jobs, cleaning,

1:13

sweeping floors, answering phones,

1:13

learning all of the equipment, all

1:17

of the fun stuff.

1:19

After graduating with his MBA from

1:22

the University of Miami, he moved

1:22

into a leadership role in the

1:26

family business. And today you can find him at the

1:31

helm of the largest franchise

1:31

business in his family's

1:34

portfolio. Sinorama overseeing 750 franchises across the globe.

1:37

That number could even be more

1:42

today. I'm not sure.

1:46

Sinorama has been named to

1:46

entrepreneur magazines top global

1:49

Very impressive. So welcome to the show today.

1:53

AJ Titus, the president of

1:53

Sinorama and Starpoint brands, the

2:00

world's largest sign and graphics business. AJ, welcome to the Thank you so

2:02

much, Randy.

2:06

Appreciate on. Yeah. We get into all of the fun stuff

2:08

we're going to hit on today.

2:15

I do have to say I understand

2:15

congratulations.

2:18

You're a new dad. Is that Yes.

2:21

So I have a 10 month old at home.

2:23

So I'm well rested for those other

2:27

dads that are listening, but they

2:27

know what I mean.

2:29

But yeah, that's it's been a great blessing. It's been Oh, that is great.

2:34

Is first first baby? Good for you.

2:36

That's always fun. Boy, girl. Girl. Yeah, there you go.

2:39

That is always how do you

2:42

navigate?

2:42

I know when my kids were babies

2:44

like that, I was traveling a lot.

2:48

How do you kind of balance that, Rick, life balance with the baby?

2:49

Because I can't imagine you've

2:52

got, you know, sites all over the

2:52

world.

2:54

So I do, you know, I'm sure you

2:54

travel a Girl.

2:58

So actually, I just got back from

2:58

South Africa yesterday.

3:01

So I was in South Africa with our

3:01

franchise owners there for our

3:04

conference. And so if I look a little jet lag

3:08

or sound a little jet lag, I might

3:08

be.

3:10

But no, it's, I'm still navigating

3:10

being a new dad and doing that.

3:14

But I think the best advice I ever

3:14

got was from my grandfather where

3:17

it's talk to your spouse and your

3:17

kids first before you get into

3:21

anything. And so before the day starts, if the time difference works, call

3:22

your spouse, call your kids, talk

3:25

to them, tell them you love them

3:25

and then go on with your day.

3:30

Don't be the one who forgets to

3:30

call them every day.

3:33

Well, that is good advice. And it's hard, especially when

3:35

you're on time differences, time zone changes and such. But I don't know what it was like

3:37

in South Africa, but I know I've

3:40

been on the west coast and, you

3:40

know, three hours back and on the

3:44

east coast time. And, you know, by the time getting

3:48

up or whatever, my kids are

3:48

already off to school or whatever.

3:50

But yeah, that's great advice. That's good. We also probably have some other,

3:51

I will say connection, not really,

3:55

kind of remotely, I guess, because we're outside of Cleveland. And I know you're a big Miami

3:57

sports fan, right?

3:59

Dolphin. Huge heat. Yeah. You like baseball?

4:03

We were chatting a little bit

4:03

about the Marlins.

4:06

And so, unfortunately. Yes. And so I'm not going to get into

4:07

the LeBron James Miami heat

4:12

Cleveland, you know, Cavaliers

4:12

winning the championship.

4:15

That was great.

4:17

But also, my office is just kind

4:21

of down the road, so to speak,

4:21

from the Don Chula Stadium,

4:24

because Don Chula went to John

4:24

Carroll University right here in

4:29

Cleveland. great Huge so, in Cleveland.

4:32

Yes. So, you had to open up that very

4:36

painful past, right?

4:36

But I would respond to that as the

4:41

heat got two championships,

4:41

Cleveland only got one.

4:44

So, you know, that one should have

4:44

been the heats, but you can have

4:49

one. I think that was good for you all.

4:51

And then it's great for us.

4:53

Yes. Oh, I'm sure.

4:56

And it's, yeah.

4:58

So that was awesome. But no, I'm a, my dolphins fandom

5:07

goes deep. So I'm a huge Miami dolphins. They would be my number one team. But all the Miami sports, I have a, you know, my wife jokes that I have a mild sports addiction. So all the Miami teams are who I

5:09

support.

5:12

So yeah, the heat So, you know,

5:12

that one only And then it's great

5:15

the Miami teams are who I support. So yeah, that's okay.

5:18

I'm a Cubs like diehard fans. So, you know, I know the, I know

5:21

the feeling. So does my wife, at least my wife

5:24

likes baseball and likes the Cubs as well. So, you know, it was not a prerequisite for our marriage. It certainly works for us. All right. Well, let's get into a little bit

5:25

of your background.

5:28

What you're doing today and

5:28

because I'm so fascinating, I

5:30

think your history. And I'm, I love, and reading

5:33

through our notes. I love the background, the growth

5:35

of your family business. And I'm going to call it a family

5:41

business. Obviously, you've got, you know, a

5:43

very large footprint now. But maybe just run our audience

5:45

kind of through the background of

5:45

kind of the, the roots of your

5:51

Well, it's, it's a long story, but

5:51

I'll, I'll summarize it into, you

5:56

know, bite-sized package. But my grandfather, Roy Titus, he

5:59

actually started Minuteman Press,

5:59

which is a printing franchise that

6:02

still exists. It's over 40 years in existence.

6:05

So, it exists to this day.

6:08

My dad actually grew up in that

6:12

business and he, you know, know

6:12

anything, but franchising like I

6:17

told you from my experience, but

6:17

he really did the same thing.

6:21

And then he wanted to start his

6:21

own business.

6:24

And with my grandfather's help

6:24

started Sinorama in New York, 37

6:28

years ago. And so from there, built the business, moved the company down

6:30

to South Florida because hey, who

6:32

would want to not live in South

6:32

Florida?

6:35

And then has built it ever since

6:35

and has added brands and

6:39

franchising's just been a part of

6:39

our dinner table conversation my

6:42

entire life. So I have two brothers that are in

6:45

the business full time. I have three cousins in the

6:48

business full time. And, you know, we're very active.

6:51

So it's one of those things where

6:51

we didn't think of doing anything

6:54

else, but it's really my

6:54

grandfather Roy and my dad Ray who

6:57

have really laid the foundation

6:57

for us really take over and to

7:00

move forward. And so, but my dad's not going,

7:03

he's not retired or anything, but

7:03

it's, it's definitely been a part

7:07

of us. Ray who been a part of us.

7:09

Well, that, that is fabulous. So just to be sure I want to kind

7:13

of understand. So it all started though with your

7:17

grandfather and starting with one business, right? With one minute man press.

7:20

Was that always called minute man even I was.

7:23

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And it man pressed. Yeah.

7:25

That was great. It's a great brand.

7:27

I mean, I've known minute man press for probably the 40 years. I don't know. Since I've been in business.

7:30

Yeah, they're probably close to 50 now.

7:33

Yeah. Yeah. All the exact numbers.

7:35

But yeah. So, and then at some point, you

7:40

know, they grew, they grew, they

7:40

grew, they grew.

7:43

And now you have, and maybe

7:43

explain star point brands.

7:47

How does that, is that more of an

7:47

umbrella company for other brands

7:51

besides Sinorama?

7:51

How does that kind of dove down?

7:53

know. Since I've been in business. Yeah, they're probably close to 50

7:55

now. Yeah. Yeah. All Yeah.

7:57

So when my dad started Sinorama,

8:00

the majority of our history was

8:00

only Sinorama.

8:02

And then we added brands throughout that time. And so at some point, my dad

8:03

looked at everyone's shirts and

8:06

everyone looked like NASCAR racers

8:06

and had all these different brands

8:10

on their shirt. So he created an umbrella name

8:13

called United Franchise Group. And we started with that as a name, but as we've continued to expand and add companies and businesses that are in a part of

7:57

franchising, we wanted to

8:18

distinguish our franchise brands

8:18

between United Franchise Group.

8:20

And so, star point brands came

8:20

from that.

8:22

So all of our brands that have

8:22

franchise owners are under star

8:25

point brands. And the ultimate vision for star

8:28

point brands is to create a brand

8:28

that customers know.

8:30

Because customers really don't

8:30

know United Franchise Group

8:32

because it's a franchising

8:32

business, right?

8:34

So we want to create a brand that

8:34

people know when they trust and

8:38

has the brands underneath that.

8:40

And so And so that's what we're

8:42

working on. Yeah, yeah. So I think I'm going to try to

8:44

tease out something that I think

8:49

you just said quickly, but I'm

8:49

like, huh, do you have some brands

8:52

under your umbrella that are not

8:52

So we have everything is connected

8:57

to franchising. Okay. So, but they don't have

8:58

necessarily franchises.

9:00

Some of them don't have as

9:00

majority of them do, right?

9:04

But we do have a handful of them

9:04

that are more franchise services

9:07

or business services. Okay. And so we're looking to expand

9:08

that and build that Uh, that is

9:12

fascinating. Somewhere in my notes and, God,

9:14

I'm horrible that I don't have

9:14

these better organized, I guess

9:17

that's my fault because my team

9:17

does a great job with this stuff.

9:21

Somewhere I had seen. a list of like all of the

9:28

different businesses and such in

9:28

your, I think portfolio will call

9:31

it. It was like business, but you've

9:34

got restaurants, right? And we're very diversified. So yeah, so everything from, very

9:35

diversified. So yeah, so everything from, you

9:37

know, shared office space to

9:40

business brokerage, signing

9:40

graphics, embroidery screen

9:42

printing, food, charcuterie, Greek. So we're all over. We're very diverse.

9:45

Yeah. So Yeah. So I guess a question that when I

9:47

was looking through the notes and

9:51

I saw that I was like, are those

9:51

brands that you either created,

9:56

right?

9:56

So it was like, hey, here's the AJ

9:59

out to her and around like, I like

9:59

that business.

10:04

going to go start one for our

10:04

family portfolio.

10:10

Or did you see a business?

10:10

And I think I remember seeing one

10:19

was like a Greek restaurant or

10:19

something like that.

10:22

There seemed like it was a Greek restaurant the way that the name of it was.

10:25

And like, did you see it and then

10:32

say, we would like to have that

10:32

and then you go buy that brand or

10:35

it was at a mixture of kind of all

10:35

of those things.

10:38

I don't know. The answer is yes to all those

10:41

questions. So it's The answer is yes to all

10:45

those questions. So it's all, it depends. So we've done joint ventures with

10:46

people. We've purchased businesses.

10:49

We've started them from the ground

10:51

up. Yeah. And everything in between. So yes, the answer to all your

10:56

were yes. Yeah. That is restaurants and food

10:56

businesses, quite a departure from

10:59

sign and graphics business, printing business. Who in your family had the

11:00

interest in that area and food?

11:03

So the funny, the the funny story

11:03

behind that is for most of the

11:06

businesses life, my dad would

11:06

stand on stage and say, I'm never

11:09

going to own a food business. And he literally said that for

11:12

decades. Okay. never going to own food for all the reasons that you wouldn't want to own food. Right. And then actually before I went

11:14

into Sinorama, I met with a client

11:17

who with the business that we no

11:17

longer own.

11:21

since sold the business. But it was a food business.

11:24

And I brought it to my dad and

11:24

he's like, oh, let's take a look.

11:33

You know, let's and he was more

11:33

open to it.

11:36

And that's what kind of opened the

11:36

door being more involved with

11:40

food. But it's not my it's I'm not

11:43

trying to take the credit for it.

11:45

But just his mindset has changed over the years.

11:48

And we have some great partners that we work with now moving

11:49

forward.

11:52

So I mean, it's I guess it's just

11:52

evolved.

11:54

And it's hard to be a big

11:54

franchise company when most of the

11:58

franchise businesses are in the food space. So it's hard to be a big franchise

12:00

company without having some food

12:04

brands. Yeah. he brands. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love diversity like that

12:07

in business. So you know, applaud your efforts in that.

12:09

Let me want to switch over and talk a minute about or more,

12:10

obviously about Sinorama. So I said, currently, and I'm not

12:12

sure, hopefully this was accurate

12:14

about 750 franchises. Yeah, about right.

12:16

Yeah. Crizies is out of pride. 13 countries. Is that sound about right?

12:20

Are you?

12:20

We're a little bit more than 13.

12:22

So I think right. Yeah. Crizies is out of bit more than

12:23

13.

12:26

So I think we're about 25 30

12:26

countries, something like that.

12:28

Yeah. So like, for instance, we have just was in South Africa.

12:31

So at that conference, we had

12:34

South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. That all were represented.

12:36

All right. And I Yeah.

12:38

So like, for represented. All right. And I think the researcher said,

12:41

hey, be sure to ask him about

12:41

Oregon and give a plug.

12:46

So do you currently still don't

12:46

have stores in Oregon for a sign

12:50

or you were were just liking to

12:50

dig a knife in an empty.

12:57

I was actually trying to help him.

13:01

Yes, the answer. The answer is yes.

13:04

Unfortunately, we don't have someone in an Oregon.

13:06

And if you know someone, Randy, we'd love to have the first store in Oregon for Sinorama. That would be great. Yeah. All right.

13:08

So actually trying to help him. Yes, the answer.

13:11

The answer is in Oregon for

13:13

Sinorama. That would be great. Yeah. right. So you can, if you're in Oregon

13:15

and you want to look into

13:20

Sinorama, go reach out to a J.

13:23

It's me a call star points brands.com and you'll get connected there. All right. So I'm trying to help a brother

13:27

out here. I it. All right.

13:30

So tell us about Sinorama. I it's a fascinating business.

13:34

And from the notes that I've read just about the model itself, I, if

13:35

I were looking at franchising, I

13:38

would like, wow, this is really

13:38

great opportunity.

13:41

It seems like so. folks, I'm not trying to pitch

13:44

Sinorama. So don't, you know, like send me all your whatever email.

13:47

Your checks in the mail, Randy. But I am really the way that it's structured in the what I would say the autonomy. And I'm not going to go too deep into this.

13:49

I'll let you go on with it. It would be very appealing, I

13:51

think. me a call star appreciate it.

13:54

All send me all your whatever email.

13:56

Your checks in the mail, Randy. But I am I mean, we're a full

13:58

essentially the business model is

14:02

where a full customizable, full

14:02

service sign and graphics

14:04

franchise. So we do everything from the small

14:08

indoor, ADA signage to large

14:08

outdoor electrical signs, vehicle

14:11

graphics and everything in between. Pretty much anything that has your

14:12

brand on it in your business.

14:16

as can do. And that's what sets us apart from

14:20

other sign competitors because

14:20

there's sign companies that focus

14:22

in on certain things. They might be, I fabricate channel

14:25

letters or I'm good with interior

14:25

signage or lit signage or things

14:29

like that. We do everything in between.

14:32

And we've been around 37 years as

14:32

well.

14:33

So we have the history, we have

14:33

the network as well.

14:36

And so, and we do give, I mean,

14:36

there's varying degrees of

14:39

franchise control. You can go from one end of the spectrum where you buy the food, you buy the cardboard, the paper, you lease your land from the

14:28

franchise or to, hey, I'm just

14:43

licensing the name. And then everything in between, we

14:47

give a lot of flexibility because

14:47

it's a fully customizable

14:50

business. You're brandy. If you needed signs for your

14:52

business, I can't just go around

14:56

the corner and say, oh, Randy

14:56

needs some signs for his business.

14:59

Let me just take that off the

14:59

shelf, right?

15:01

We have to design it, create it,

15:01

print it, apply it, there's more

15:06

to it. And so it's hard to have the

15:09

controls that other franchises

15:09

have or try to have where it's

15:12

fully customizable. And we want the entrepreneur to flourish.

15:14

Like we want each one of our

15:17

franchise owners to be entrepreneurial and flourish. And so we try to make a system and

15:18

a culture that they can flourish

15:22

in and give them that flexibility.

15:24

I and give it. I will say If I could, I would

15:26

tilt my camera over and show you

15:31

but in our office on one of the

15:31

main walls, we actually have our

15:36

logo in some vinyl print letters

15:36

and stuff.

15:39

We use Sinorama, a franchise local in here too. Very good to do the cut and they

15:41

came out of the store.

15:46

Is he on the east side of town?

15:46

Yes, actually on the east side and

15:50

a little bit north of us of where

15:50

we are.

15:52

Very good store. Is he on the east Okay, I think I

15:54

know which franchise owner that is. It's probably Sam.

15:57

So do you work with the guy or no?

15:59

was here when they came in and

15:59

told me.

16:02

Okay, when they did it.

16:04

Okay, I don't know who that's. So if Sam's listening, then maybe,

16:06

you know, it'll be good.

16:08

Very funny. So your business, so especially I

16:11

think, is 37 years. That's a long time.

16:14

And we have come through like

16:14

leaps and bounds and technology.

16:17

How has technology changed the way

16:17

that you guys, not only Okay, when

16:22

they did it. Okay, I don't know who that's.

16:24

So if Sam's listening, then maybe,

16:24

you know, it'll be good.

16:28

Very do business, but as well even

16:28

the types of business and or

16:34

delivery of business. How has that It's changed rapidly,

16:39

but it's also stayed the same. And that's the beauty of design business.

16:41

So our core products from 37 years ago are pretty much the same.

16:44

I mean, we cut vinyl, we print vinyl, we do a lot of different things. But just to give you a

16:41

perspective, 37 years ago, there

16:47

was a dark room in the original

16:47

store where they developed film.

16:50

There was a painter on staff that

16:50

painted signs, okay?

16:53

But we still had a plotter in the

16:53

store.

16:56

And stores still have a plotter to

16:56

this day in the store.

16:58

And so at the end of the day, the

16:58

way in which we've made products,

17:04

the equipment has changed and

17:04

advanced quite rapidly, the way in

17:08

which you market has changed quite

17:08

rapidly, our website has changed.

17:12

I mean, when we first started,

17:12

there was no website 37 years ago.

17:19

To now, you know, there's so many things we can do with our website. So we've invested a lot in our technology. But the cool part is we're still

17:00

selling signs.

17:23

We're still using some of the same

17:23

pieces of equipment.

17:26

We used 37 years ago, but it's

17:26

just advanced a little further.

17:31

And I think there's going to be a

17:31

lot of other changes, exciting

17:34

changes around the corner from an

17:34

electrical signage point of view,

17:38

digital signage, and 3D printing. I also think that at some point,

17:41

3D printing will be applicable to our Right, right. I'll tell you, just for my own

17:43

experience, it was so easy to kind

17:47

of deal with, you know, here's,

17:47

I'll show you if you can see.

17:51

Oh, it looks good. OK. I'm trying to get it to, yeah,

17:54

it was unbluried for a second, but

17:54

yeah, looks good.

17:57

There we go. Nice. OK, great. So because I just said, like,

17:59

well, here's my logo, right?

17:59

And I took the logo

18:02

electronically. I sent them the image and I wanted

18:05

to be X tall and X wide.

18:08

And boom, they just came out with

18:10

a letter. It was fabulous. And I think I read somewhere in

18:12

the notes as well, though, and

18:16

talking about this technology. This is where it kind of triggered

18:18

me. It was that so you can even

18:21

actually go and print directly

18:21

onto items and nuts.

18:23

I said, you are. I'm going to read this quote, I

18:25

think, because I thought, really,

18:25

you can do that.

18:28

Were you printing directly on the

18:28

piece of what you call this?

18:30

I'm going to read this. I think this is it.

18:33

Yes. There's flat bed printing where

18:36

you can print directly to a

18:36

material instead of printing on a

18:39

piece of vinyl and then placing it

18:39

onto something.

18:42

You can take a door off the hinges

18:42

and print on the door Oh, it looks

18:46

good. OK. I'm trying to get it was

18:49

unbluried for a second, but yeah, looks Nice. So That's a funny story you

18:50

actually bring up.

18:53

So yeah, so to answer your

18:53

question, flatbed printing a lot

18:56

of our stores, not every store,

18:56

but most of our stores at this

19:02

point have had some sort of

19:02

flatbed printing into their shop.

19:04

And there's even some sort of

19:04

printing, the printer direct is

19:09

called DCS printing. And so they actually prints

19:11

Braille. So it actually raises off of the substrate.

19:13

So you can actually print Braille in some letters with texture and

19:15

things of that nature.

19:18

So there's some really cool things

19:18

that stores are doing with

19:20

interior design. But flatbed printing, you can

19:22

print on a lot of different

19:22

substrates and different types of

19:27

things. But when flatbed printing became a

19:30

thing, the HP rep came to our head

19:30

office and he said, hey, we can do

19:34

this and we can print on this and

19:34

we can print on a door.

19:43

And so Jim Tatum, who was my

19:43

predecessor, said, show me.

19:46

And we literally took his door off

19:46

of the hinges and brought it into

19:51

the back. And we printed on his door and the

19:53

door that my vice president has is

19:53

that original door.

19:56

We painted over it white, but it was a picture of Jim on the door that we printed as like the as the sample. So yes, so if you did want to

18:56

print on a door, you can print on

20:03

a door. They proved that right. can but it was a is bad.

20:06

When I read that, I thought, wow, that is great.

20:09

Because I've always thought about maybe taking one of our vehicles

20:10

and wrapping it with our logo and

20:15

such and drive it around, you

20:15

know, the promoter agency and I

20:19

wonder if I could just like drive

20:19

my car.

20:22

They just print right onto my

20:22

vehicle.

20:24

So, but can't do that yet. I don't know if you want us to do

20:29

that. do that yet. I don't know if you want us to do

20:30

that.

20:33

Can't do that yet, but I'm sure

20:33

that technology might be there

20:35

somewhere. Oh, yeah. That's I want to get into the

20:37

whole concept around franchise and

20:41

what makes a good franchisee and

20:41

all of that and maybe we'll do

20:44

that after the 17th and stretch. But before we do that, how about

20:47

give us, I guess, your insights on

20:47

the current state of franchising

20:50

and the franchising industry. Obviously, you're a very large

20:53

franchise or so I would expect to

20:53

hear, you know, good things about

20:56

it. From your insights, though, what do you, how do you see the

20:57

industry today and where do you

21:01

see it going in the next three to 10 years? Is it recessionary proof?

21:03

You know, there's all this conversation about recession.

21:06

Well, there's nothing. I wouldn't say there's anything that's recession proof. I would say Sinorama speaking

21:08

selfishly is very recession resilient because we have so many

21:09

different types of products and people still need to market their

21:11

business. So our product mix is going to

21:13

change during a recessionary time

21:16

and we've seen that because we've

21:16

been through a couple of

21:19

recessions in our 37 years, either

21:19

pandemic related or financial

21:23

related or whatever the case may be. So we've seen that prove out over

21:25

time. But the thing with franchising, I

21:27

would say there's no better model

21:30

in the world that helps people

21:30

generate wealth and helps them own

21:29

their own business because there

21:29

are many franchisees that could

21:31

never start their own business on their own. But the guidance that franchising

21:33

gives them and the training and

21:37

the support and the network that

21:37

they get helps them to be

21:42

successful there where they

21:42

wouldn't be where they would be

21:46

kind of on an island starting

21:46

their own business.

21:48

And I like the joke that we've

21:48

made all the mistakes so that

21:53

other people don't have to make

21:53

the mistakes.

21:56

And so that's what we have.

21:59

We have that 37 years of

22:03

experience and the stats prove out

22:03

that a franchise business is way

22:08

more successful than someone that

22:08

just starts by themselves.

22:12

And so I think, and again, I've

22:12

grown up in franchising.

22:16

It's one of the greatest economic

22:16

drivers in the history of the

22:20

world. Now the industry itself is strong

22:22

and really good. You do have some politicians who

22:25

like to get involved in

22:25

franchising and like to speak on

22:29

things that they don't necessarily

22:29

know about.

22:31

And I think their intentions are

22:31

pure.

22:34

Honestly, I think their intentions

22:34

are in the right spot.

22:36

But I think that at the end of the

22:36

day, they're not really digging

22:39

into franchising and understanding

22:39

what franchising is and they don't

22:42

get what the model is and they

22:42

could end up really hurting it.

22:45

So there are some threats to

22:45

franchising that we work with and

22:49

then there's some people who are

22:49

working on that as well to educate

22:52

people and help them understand on

22:52

what franchising is.

22:55

But overall the industry is very strong. It continues to grow.

22:58

There are a lot of franchises that you wouldn't even think of

23:00

franchises. You could be in your shopping

23:02

center and you may look think, oh,

23:06

that's mom and pop business, but

23:06

it's actually a franchise.

23:09

So it's a huge part of the

23:09

pandemic the things that I love

23:11

about Sinorama again is kind of

23:11

the autonomy.

23:14

You allow your franchisees to

23:14

offer this service or that service

23:16

or a lot of services, how they

23:16

probably structure their shop

23:19

itself, meaning management structure. They operated what's the staffing

23:20

models look like things like that.

23:24

But I'd saw it as well. And this, only because I am

23:26

somewhat familiar with franchising

23:26

and... loved this scaling

23:29

royalties kind of concept. Do you guys still do that and

23:32

maybe explain what that is?

23:32

So we So we do and it's rare in

23:35

franchising. Usually it's just a 6% flat or an

23:39

8% flat of gross sales. We actually scale it down.

23:42

So it's 6% up to 600,000 in sales,

23:42

4% to a million and then 2%

23:49

thereafter for however long the

23:49

franchise or much the franchise

23:52

owner grows. So the better that the franchise

23:54

owner does, the better that they do. They actually get a discount for

23:56

doing better because we want to

23:58

encourage sales. We want to encourage growth and we're partners in this.

24:01

We're a 6% partner. The franchise owner is 94%.

24:04

So they got to run their business and run the system the right way

24:06

and hire and fire their employees.

24:09

But we're going to do what our 6%

24:09

is and a lot of our franchise

24:13

owners who grow and get to those

24:13

2% is actually totally not at 6%

24:17

is actually totally less. And if you were to do math so.

24:21

Wow. It is rare and that's why I wanted to be sure to kind of call it out

24:23

because when I came across that

24:26

and then know it's like I've not

24:26

heard of that in the franchise

24:28

world. Scaling royalties because as an entrepreneur it makes sense to me

24:29

but from a franchise or a

24:35

perspective is like you're kind of

24:35

just giving money away a little

24:40

bit versus right. And then the way for you to

24:43

continue to incentivize your

24:43

franchise is like go out go get

24:50

it. Well it's also a Well it's also a

24:54

different mindset because we're a family run business. So I'm not building this business

24:55

to sell to a private equity

24:59

company or go publicly traded or

24:59

anything like that.

25:04

Like I'm helping to build this

25:04

company because I want my daughter

25:07

to take over in 20, 30 years when

25:07

she's old enough to do it.

25:12

So we want long term relationships

25:12

with our franchise owner.

25:14

So of course everyone wants to

25:14

make money and we like to make

25:18

money too just like the next

25:18

person but we also want that long

25:23

term relationship with our

25:23

franchisees.

25:25

Yeah, that's terrific. All right. So we're going to come back to all

25:26

of that fun stuff in a second.

25:30

But here we go. And time for the seventh inning

25:32

stretch. right, AJ. Now is the time. We're going to get into the

25:36

seventh inning stretch here. And before we kind of hit the

25:41

record button was, hey do you like baseball ball? We have a lot of guests.

25:43

Our current show that just released on Monday, you know, the

25:45

case from Scotland. And he's like, I don't know

25:47

anything about baseball.

25:49

So we get all kinds. And I'm assuming all kinds.

25:52

And I'm assuming you don't have

25:52

any Bartman questions as I'm a

25:55

Morales fan. You're a Cubs fan.

25:58

fan. No, no Bartman question. Okay. So here we go. We actually, my researcher was

26:00

like, hey, she thought she was on

26:02

the line of a great question, a

26:02

great pursuit.

26:04

And then after spent about an hour

26:04

into it, she's like, I just can't

26:10

find anything. Cannot find. She wanted to do some kind of a

26:12

question and get some hard

26:16

information on signage in the But

26:16

there's a ton of signage right in

26:21

the ass throughout stadiums. But she's like, I cannot find

26:24

anything on pricing. So there's certainly no shortage. We have opportunities to have a

26:26

sign in a stadium. And then she listed all of this

26:27

banner ads on walls and sidelines,

26:30

ivy screens, different kinds of

26:30

screens, restroom ads, on field

26:33

branding, scoreboard, concourse signage. I mean, there's all kinds of

26:34

stuff, right?

26:36

And Cubs and cup holders and stairways. And she's like, it is, she goes,

26:37

and there's no pricing.

26:40

She had this great idea. Like, I'm going to what's the most

26:43

expensive sign or something?

26:43

You know, I ass like it.

26:46

That's the beauty of our businesses because everything's custom. So the price, you know, that's

26:48

something that we always discuss

26:48

with our franchise owners because

26:51

price is kind of up in the air.

26:54

I mean, you can get it kind of a

26:56

feel, but you can charge what you want. And there's some very famous signs

26:58

in baseball too.

27:01

I mean, like, I think of the UTS

27:01

pretzel sign and Yankee Stadium.

27:07

There's the, is it sit-go?

27:07

The big sign that's outside of

27:13

Fenway Park. Yes, yes. So that's a famous one, but that's

27:14

not even in Fenway Park.

27:19

They kind of cheated the system by

27:19

facing it the other way, but it

27:24

still kind of goes on the Fenway

27:24

anyway.

27:26

but that's not even in Fenway

27:26

Park.

27:29

They kind of cheated the system by

27:29

It gets a lot of eyeballs on it.

27:32

Yeah, the only thing that we could

27:32

find, why I say she could find

27:35

was, and I'll just throw this out

27:35

because I really don't have a

27:41

question. So you're getting, okay, we're

27:44

getting a real softball lob to you

27:44

to knock it out.

27:47

The only thing that even is a

27:47

relative question is, I'm going to

27:52

couch it this way. What is the cost of a logo patch

27:56

on a follow up questions. So is it the actual cost to

28:01

advertise a logo patch on a

28:01

uniform or the actual cost to

28:08

uniform or the actual cost to make

28:08

it star point brands wanted to put

28:13

your logo patch on a Oh, And this

28:13

is in MLB, baby.

28:19

That's all. That's all we talk about. Okay.

28:21

Cause the all. That's all we talk about.

28:24

Okay. Cause the Marlins, they might be

28:25

begging you just to stick it on

28:33

the thing.

28:35

I mean, that's what they might be

28:37

doing. It I mean, that's what they might

28:40

be doing. It could be an for you, right?

28:44

It might be. I'm sorry.

28:46

I'm so cynical about my team. I'll still watch them all, but

28:49

they just, I'm just so cynical. I don't mean to be like that.

28:53

But all right. long a a year?

28:55

You know, actually, I don't even

28:55

know what it's probably.

28:58

I'm just going to guess $10

28:58

million.

29:00

It's got to be a multi. It's got to be a multi year.

29:02

what it's probably. I'm just going to guess $10 million. It's got to be a I'm going to

29:06

guess $10 million. I don't even know the hard number.

29:10

She just has written down eight

29:10

figures eight figures.

29:13

Okay. So, all right. Yeah.

29:15

So I guess eight figures.

29:17

Yeah. It's quite expensive. Yeah. So yeah, that's expensive.

29:19

Yeah. Yes. So that's that's the question. Anyway.

29:21

And and that was the honest seven

29:21

thinning we've had for a while.

29:24

Very good. There we go. Let's get back into it. Playball. Okay. So, all right. Yeah. So I guess eight figures. Yeah. It's that's expensive.

29:27

Yeah. Yes. So back into it.

29:29

I wanted to talk with you.

29:31

And really, I think I read a quote

29:31

again or somewhere.

29:34

And maybe she pulled this out of a podcast. I think that you're on earlier at

29:36

some point.

29:39

And you have this viewpoint of

29:39

your role, which is helping

29:43

businesses grow and be successful. I don't know if that's a direct

29:47

quote or not, but that was kind of

29:47

your viewpoint.

29:52

Anyway, that you were expressing.

30:00

I love that as a franchise or and

30:03

in your role. I mean, you're you're the top top

30:07

man there. You're the top franchise or. So how do you do that?

30:07

So kind of maintain that

30:11

viewpoint, pursue that kind of

30:11

mindset in a day to day basis.

30:19

How do you do that as a CEO?

30:19

Well, so it's a a go back to what

30:22

I said earlier about being the

30:22

best economic one of the best

30:25

economic creations of our time in the world. It's because of the symbiotic

30:27

relationship with it. And so if our franchise owners do really well, we make money. If the brand is really valuable

30:28

and does a good job, our franchise

30:32

owners make money and it works

30:32

together and one can't work by

30:35

itself. You got to work together and the only way you can motivate

30:36

franchisees and the only way you

30:42

can motivate people is to have

30:42

relationships with them and to

30:45

care about them and to care about

30:45

their lives and what they want to

30:49

do. At the end of the day, I love when I hear franchise owners tell me, hey, this business has helped me put my kids through college.

30:52

This this franchise has helped me afford a great retirement.

30:55

This franchise has helped me put my kids into business.

30:58

And they take over for me and

31:01

there's longevity there. so that's what gets me up in the

31:05

morning and that's what makes me

31:05

happy.

31:08

And so if you don't have your that

31:08

mindset, you can't be a successful

31:12

franchise or I mean, my cell phone

31:12

is given out to all our franchise

31:17

owners. If anyone wants to talk to me, they can talk to me. can shoot me an email, shoot me a text.

31:20

I have a 10 month old at home, so

31:23

I don't sleep all that much. So it doesn't matter what time

31:28

zone you're in. Look, that's that's the way you

31:31

got to be. You got to live it.

31:35

You have to be involved with it

31:35

because as soon as you don't live

31:44

it, then the quality starts to go down. The relationship starts to go away

31:46

and you're not going to be as

31:49

successful. And so, you know, when I not to

31:53

digress Randy, but when I was

31:53

dating my now wife, she saw me

31:57

being in the franchising business.

32:00

So I there was a point where we

32:03

were dating for I don't know, it

32:03

was like a year or something,

32:09

whatever it was. I just had this conversation with

32:12

her to say, look, you know, I

32:12

really like you and I'd like to

32:15

marry you someday, but you got to

32:15

know that I'm going to travel a

32:20

lot. I'm going to be very involved with

32:22

our franchise owners. And this is going to be your life

32:27

too. And so if you're cool with that,

32:29

then great. I'm going to make me very happy.

32:32

But if you're not, you're not cool

32:32

with that, then we got a split.

32:35

You know, we got to do our

32:35

separate ways.

32:38

So I'm happy she chose to stay,

32:38

hang around.

32:40

But that's just how serious we take it. It's just the part of our lives.

32:44

good. Good advice. Good relationship advice as well. That wasn't a proposal either.

32:47

That was one of either. That was one of just, hey, it's

32:48

some day, it won't be a proposal.

32:52

some day, it is, you know, we

32:52

might as well cut it off now.

32:55

I was hoping, buddy, that that was

32:55

not the proposal because I'm like,

33:00

that really wasn't all that romantic. I did a little, put a little more

33:01

effort into it than that.

33:05

So when you have a new franchisee

33:05

or just somebody new in business,

33:08

maybe what and kind of back to

33:08

this mindset that you have, which

33:12

is helping businesses grow and be

33:12

successful.

33:14

Are there some first kind of

33:14

fundamental steps or things that

33:16

you want to cover or as an

33:16

overview with I'm wondering about

33:18

that romantic. I did a little, put a little more

33:21

effort into it Well, I mean, for each franchise, each franchise has their system.

33:23

So there's a system that works. So when you look for a franchisee,

33:24

you want someone who listens and

33:27

follows a system. And so, and that's been proven out

33:30

over years. And it's been tweaked and added

33:32

to. And, you know, we adjust over the

33:34

time based on what happens in the

33:34

world and advice and things of

33:38

that nature. So you want someone who's focused

33:41

on the system. So I always point back to if

33:44

something's not going right, one

33:44

of two things is going wrong.

33:47

Either they're not following the

33:47

franchise system that we have or

33:51

they're not working hard enough. There's nothing in between, right? So they're either, and again, not

33:53

being, I'm not being facetious,

33:55

there could be things happening in

33:55

their life to not make them follow

33:58

the system. Like, you know, there could be a number of different things.

34:00

But usually when that, when something's going wrong, it's those two things. And so I always point back and

34:02

train on, what does the system

34:06

say? What does the system say? And are you doing that?

34:07

So those are really the two

34:09

questions that when I was in

34:09

support, I would do.

34:11

And that same thing when I talk to

34:11

franchisee now, and it doesn't

34:14

matter if the franchisee is doing

34:14

a half million dollars in sales or

34:17

seven million dollars in sales and

34:17

everything in between, it's

34:19

usually those two things. That's good. are, don't we talk about this

34:21

before, but you're really a family

34:24

business and goes all the way

34:24

through and I'm curious.

34:28

I mean, just earlier, the beginning with the introduction, talked about your uncle and your

34:29

cousins all involved in the

34:32

business in different parts of the portfolio. How does that work?

34:34

I mean, in the sense of, well,

34:36

you're already plus years, you've

34:36

three generations, you got a lot

34:41

of hands, a lot of opinions.

34:43

Yep. How does that all kind of stay

34:43

together and keep going in the

34:47

right direction?

34:47

I'm sure sometimes doesn't feel

34:50

like it's going in the right

34:50

directions.

34:54

I mean, I know family dynamics and

34:54

sure.

34:58

How do you guys keep it all I

34:58

Well, we're, it's all my dad.

35:06

You get to be honest with you. It's all my dad laying the foundation and speaking truth into all of us. Like he's been very clear with me.

34:43

Like you're not the president of

34:45

Sinorama because you're my son. You're the president because

35:11

you're working hard and you're the

35:11

best person for the job.

35:14

But if I cease to become the best

35:14

person for Sinorama, he has your

35:18

problem telling me that and firing

35:18

me as well.

35:20

And so there's a clear cut

35:20

communication in that regard

35:23

because it's not about enriching the family. It's about our franchise owners

35:25

and growing the business.

35:27

That's what it's about. And so that's the first thing is

35:30

that my dad has laid a great foundation. The second thing is he's made as

35:31

very aware of the statistics

35:34

because first generation, the second generation, it's high. It's maybe 60, 70%.

35:37

And I'm going to watch the numbers

35:40

directly. But successful. Successful. Pass on the business continues to

35:42

be successful. Second to third generation, it's

35:45

probably like 20%, 15%. It goes down pretty much.

35:48

Third generation, the fourth

35:48

generation, you might as well buy

35:51

a lottery ticket. It's like low single digits. And so the joke is the first

35:53

generation works really hard, builds it.

35:55

Second generation maintains it. The third generation spends all

35:56

the money and the fourth

35:58

generation closes it. And I hate to say it like that,

36:02

but that's what the statistics tell us. And so we don't want to be a

36:04

statistic and we don't want to be

36:08

part of that. And we have a plan in place and my

36:10

dad has done an amazing job at

36:10

being clear and honest with all of

36:13

us and have our mindset on the

36:13

right way because of course, where

36:16

there's times where we disagree

36:16

and of course there's times where

36:24

we might not see eye to eye on

36:24

certain things, but it always goes

36:30

back to, what's the best thing our

36:30

franchise owners?

36:33

What's the best thing for our

36:33

company as a whole?

36:37

And we move forward.

36:40

But it's not about AJ or my

36:43

brother or my cousin or ever.

36:46

It's about our business as a Well,

36:51

first I applaud that because I

36:51

think that would still be very

36:56

difficult to pull personalities

36:56

out of the mix.

36:59

And I'm sure your family's got a

36:59

handful of personalities.

37:04

And to stay focused on the overall

37:04

objective of the company and

37:07

success of the company and your

37:07

franchise ease.

37:10

And I'm probably gonna harken back because you mentioned and certainly want to give credit to

37:12

your father and I understand that,

37:16

and I don't have a lot of facts on

37:16

this.

37:20

And so I wanted your, really your insights on that. So I understand you wrote a book

37:22

about your dad and the lessons

37:26

Tell us about that and give us

37:26

maybe a taste of some of the

37:30

lessons. you Well, there's the other call to action is my books on Amazon.

37:33

If you all want to read it, it's very cheap. So I'm not making a ton of money

37:37

from it. It's really just to get out there.

37:40

your But the book is called The

37:40

List Lessons from a Father by AJ

37:46

Titus. And it's on Amazon.

37:48

But the story goes is my dad, he

37:48

traveled a lot growing up.

37:51

He traveled a lot more than even I

37:51

traveled now because every trade

37:54

show was out of town. And he had people all over every

37:57

continent and things of that

37:57

nature.

38:00

But my dad took two things very

38:00

seriously.

38:03

When he was home, he drove us to

38:03

school.

38:05

And he had that time with us in

38:05

the car.

38:09

And then the other thing was

38:09

everyone eats at the dinner table.

38:14

So he was home at 6.30 almost

38:14

every day.

38:17

And we ate at the dinner table.

38:20

And we talked. Okay. so that's where a lot of the

38:23

teaching happened. And with my dad.

38:25

And so one of the things he did

38:25

driving to school is he made us

38:31

memorize and recite what he called the list. And it was 15, 16.

38:35

I wrote the book. I should know. But multiple facts on Lessons to

38:38

the Bible. So like one of them is honesty. Always tell the truth.

38:42

Another one is hard work. Work harder than other people.

38:44

Respect. Respect other people. Dedication. Dedicate yourself to good.

38:47

And we go down this and we had to

38:50

memorize that. And say it back to him when we were kids.

38:52

When we were eight years old, nine years old, 10 years old.

38:55

And then once we've memorized it, the lesson changed from, okay, you

38:56

memorized it.

38:58

Now are you living by the list?

38:58

Are you living by these lessons

39:02

that were given you? And so going through the process of having a child and for the

39:04

first time, you think about

39:07

things. You didn't even think about before.

39:09

Right? So one of those things is how am I

39:10

going to parent my daughter?

39:16

And so my best example that I have

39:16

is the people who parented me.

39:25

And so I thought back and I

39:25

thought, you know, this is a good

39:31

thing that I should share with everybody. And that's why I did it.

39:35

You know, I don't, don't make any

39:39

money on it. It's just one of those things

39:42

where it's out there. And if you want to read it great

39:48

and I gave it to our franchise owners. And if it helps someone, then

39:49

that's what makes me smile.

39:52

So that's the whole purpose. purpose.

39:55

What a great gift to give to your

39:55

father as well as well as your,

40:02

your own kids, your own daughter.

40:05

Yeah. Just to continue to share

40:05

meaningful lessons from your

40:09

father. I love it. I'm going to go check it out.

40:11

The list. Yeah. The list lessons. It's a quick book. Yeah. Quick read.

40:14

Yeah. Nice. So let's get in a little bit about, It's a quick book.

40:17

Yeah. you mentioned some things about,

40:17

you know, what makes a good

40:21

franchise, the E. And I'm kind of

40:21

curious because you do have all of

40:25

these different brands. And I did find, no, I probably

40:29

lost it. I did find the list of, of the

40:32

various, of the various different

40:32

franchise or groups and things

40:34

that you have. probably going to say this.

40:37

And this is probably a dumb

40:37

question, I guess.

40:40

But does a franchisee prospect in

40:40

Sinorama look different than a

40:42

franchisee prospect in the Mediterranean grill? I think was one of your friends.

40:46

Yes. Is that right? Yes. Is that right?

40:47

Yes. Yes. The answer is yes.

40:49

So, I mean, each business needs

40:49

different, you know, mindset

40:52

behind a different skill set. What we generally find though is,

40:55

you know, for instance, for

40:55

Sinorama, someone has to have

40:58

either sales, marketing, or management background of some, some regards. So they have to know how to manage

41:02

systems and processes. They have to have an open mind.

41:07

They have to have a positive attitude. But we have franchise owners

41:09

between all walks of life.

41:13

I mean, someone who is an operational person to a sales-minded person, but they got

41:15

to hire their weakness, you know.

41:17

So if they're an operational

41:17

person, you got to hire a sales

41:21

person. If you're more of a sales person, you got to make sure you have a

41:22

strong operational person.

41:24

And each brand is a little different, right? And the investment level is a

41:26

little different for each brand

41:29

too. So we have some brands that are

41:32

more absentee ownership, where

41:32

Sinorama is really not an absentee

41:35

model. You have owner operator who's in the business.

41:38

And so, yeah, there are definitely differences between each one, but

41:40

really the attitude piece and the

41:44

mindset piece stays the same. You got to be able to follow a

41:48

system. You got to be able to be positive.

41:50

You got to be able to be

41:50

open-minded.

41:52

I mean, there are some people who

41:52

flat out cannot be in the

41:56

franchising business. You know, and I've told people on

41:58

Discovery Day tour, this might not

41:58

be for you because you don't want

42:01

to change everything to suit you,

42:01

where we have the blueprint to

42:03

move forward. And you'll have flexibility and entrepreneurial ship within the

42:04

blueprint, but you got to follow the blueprint. You can't have a blueprint for a

42:07

house, and then there's a canoe sitting there. But if you want to color your

42:08

house blue and have a pool, and

42:12

the model pooled and great, that's awesome. So have the blue or the blue.

42:15

anyway, that's good. All right. So as a question.

42:19

So we have a lot of small business

42:19

owners listening to the podcast.

42:25

That's primarily what do they need to know if they're considering franchising their Well, so number

42:27

one, they should first call

42:30

accurate franchising, which is one

42:30

of our consulting firms that we

42:34

help people turn their business into a franchise. So thank you for that plug.

42:38

I didn't even know that.

42:41

So yeah, so accurate franchising.com. But besides that piece, there are

42:42

as I kind of alluded to earlier,

42:45

there's a lot of legal, legal ease in franchising. And so the FTC and whatnot, you

42:47

have to have a franchise

42:52

disclosure document and all that

42:52

fun stuff.

42:56

And so that's something to keep in

42:56

mind.

42:59

But before you even get to the

42:59

legal side, the things I would be

43:06

asking myself is number one, is

43:06

this a replicable model?

43:09

So franchising is successful over

43:09

many states and many countries.

43:14

So is this something that is

43:14

widely replicable?

43:17

The first thing, number two, do you have a written down system? Or is this just all in your brain?

43:18

Would the business completely fall

43:25

apart if you got hit by a bus?

43:25

Or can this be written down and

43:31

passed to someone and talked to

43:31

someone else?

43:33

And then number three, I would say

43:33

is are these products and

43:37

services? You know, can you get these to these different places?

43:39

So like, you know, there might be

43:41

a regional thing. Like, for instance, I married a Texan. So the girl I told that was going

43:47

to be in franchising. She's a Texan.

43:49

And so they eat things called

43:49

collaches in Texas.

43:52

I had no idea what the hell that

43:52

was.

43:54

A collache. Okay. I since now know what it is and

43:54

it's delicious. But if you rolled out collaches in

43:56

South Florida, people would think

43:58

you are nuts. Now, again, I'll eat my own words

44:01

because there are many brands that

44:01

have done a great job in rolling

44:03

things out in other countries and

44:03

areas that was never there before.

44:06

But in the same breath, is this

44:06

something that is easily

44:09

explainable? So anyway, I didn't even know that. that's good.

44:12

I know what collaches are. You are.

44:14

Okay. I think I know what it is now.

44:18

Cleveland even. So here we are.

44:21

We're going to roll into the bottom of the ninth. And generally we have a kind of a

44:22

set question in regards to the

44:26

bottom of the ninth when we ask

44:26

for your advice for those starting

44:29

out in business or maybe already

44:29

are in business.

44:31

But I'm going to fine tune the

44:31

question a little bit closer to

44:35

your niche here, which is, are.

44:37

Okay. I think I know what it is now.

44:40

you have any tips or advice you

44:42

can give to entrepreneurs thinking

44:42

about getting into franchising?

44:46

So that's a good question. I mean, big things for me is you

44:50

want to know the people you're

44:50

going into business with because

44:52

this is a partner type of

44:52

partnership.

44:55

It's not a true partnership, but

44:55

it is a type of partnership.

45:00

And so where the brand goes really

45:00

is where your business will go.

45:09

Even if you run the system the right way and you work really hard, the brand as a whole, if

45:10

they're growing and successful,

45:13

it's really going to determine a

45:13

lot of your success.

45:17

So, you know, number one is the

45:17

franchise been around for a long

45:25

time. Do they have that longevity, that history of success?

45:27

Number two, who are the business partners, the businesses, the

45:29

people in charge? So is it a family run business

45:30

like us? Do they have the same owners for

45:32

10 or more years?

45:37

Is this a stable ownership group

45:37

or is just as being passed to

45:41

different people?

45:41

And is it an industry that you're

45:43

excited about? There's a lot of great businesses and a lot of great franchises and

45:45

a lot of great industries.

45:49

Is this something that you're

45:49

excited about because again, like

45:51

I tell this franchise prospects

45:51

all the time because they're all

45:54

about making money, making money, making money. And that's great.

45:56

Again, as I said, everyone should

45:59

want to make money. We're a capitalistic world, making

46:02

money is not a bad thing.

46:04

It's not a dirty thing.

46:07

Okay. But you got to enjoy what you do.

46:09

You got to enjoy waking up in the

46:09

morning and you got to enjoy going

46:14

into work and you got to enjoy being passionate about the products you sell.

46:17

And so are you going to be passionate about flipping burgers?

46:19

Are you going to be passionate

46:21

about helping people grow their

46:21

businesses, what sign around with

46:24

this?

46:24

And so again, that's my spin on

46:26

it. But again, some people aren't passionate about signs and that's

46:28

fine. That's no problem.

46:31

I want people who are passionate about the business, right?

46:32

And so those are the things I

46:34

would say from a franchising what

46:34

you're looking at.

46:37

at. Yeah. Oh, good advice. Good advice. How about just in general, because

46:39

I still want to get that, yeah, so

46:42

it's such great experience and you

46:42

see all different types of

46:45

businesses and operators. What advice though do you have

46:48

just in general, not kind of

46:48

taking out the model of franchise,

46:51

but just advice in the general work hard. There's no such thing as luck.

46:54

I mean, at the end of the day, I

46:57

Hey, there is let me take a step

46:57

back.

46:59

at the end of the day, I'm going

46:59

to be a I definitely would sit

47:05

here and say, I'm extremely lucky

47:05

to be born to the family that I

47:08

was born to and have the mentors

47:08

around me that I have mentored me

47:12

and helped me. But in the same breath, I have

47:15

also worked very hard and I've

47:15

earned it.

47:17

Same thing with everyone listening

47:17

to this podcast.

47:19

There's some things you're going

47:19

to be lucky about.

47:22

There's some things you're not

47:22

going to be lucky about, but you

47:27

can choose how you can react to

47:27

that luck and create your own luck

47:33

in a lot of ways. So the people who grind and work really hard, they're usually

47:36

successful. Now there's more nuance to that,

47:37

okay? But at the end of the day, it's

47:38

really, are you working hard?

47:46

Are you passionate about what

47:46

you're doing and do you want to

47:50

make a difference?

47:50

Because I tell our franchise

47:53

owners all the time, hey, you

47:53

think if you don't think you're

47:56

making a difference by selling signs, you're wrong. You're making a huge difference in

47:57

your community.

47:59

And there's a ton of people who

47:59

have helped people become

48:02

entrepreneurs with sign and

48:02

graphics and have donated to

48:04

nonprofits and have done things to

48:04

make a difference.

48:07

And so, you know, care, work hard,

48:07

make a difference, and you'll be

48:10

successful. Yeah, yeah. I love it. That's great advice too.

48:12

And I love, wish I knew who said

48:12

this quote, but I think it

48:17

dovetails directly with what you

48:17

said is something like luck or

48:21

success is when preparation,

48:21

substitute, hard work meets

48:23

opportunity. And I think, you know, what you stated as well, just really just

48:25

echoes that same sentiment.

48:28

So listen, AJ, thanks for being on

48:28

the show.

48:31

It's been great to get to know you

48:31

and understand our point brands

48:35

and folks, you can go check out

48:35

the show notes.

48:38

We will have a link where you can

48:38

get in touch with AJ if you'd

48:41

like. Talk to him more about business,

48:43

about family business, about franchising. And start point brands.com.

48:46

Well, also I have a link to his

48:48

book. I'm going to go check that out.

48:51

That'll be fun. And yeah, it's just been fun

48:53

having you on the show. Appreciate Randy, the pleasure has

48:57

been mine. I really appreciate the conversation. yeah. All right.

49:00

Hey folks, that's the ball game. Thanks for joining us today.

49:02

And if you like our show, please tell your friends, subscribe and

49:03

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49:04

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49:06

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