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273: Find Your Dream Franchise with Adam Goldman

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Adam Goldman, Franchise Coach, Consultant, and author of The Franchisee Lifestyle, is driven by a mission to help individuals find their dream franchise opportunities and align them with their goals for a fulfilling lifestyle.

We learn about Adam’s journey into franchise coaching and his 3 Filters Framework, a tool he uses to match individuals with franchise opportunities. The framework evaluates three key factors: sales vs. execution, full-time vs. part-time engagement, and brick-and-mortar vs. service-based models. Adam explains how these filters guide potential franchisees to discover opportunities that fit their skills, preferences, and lifestyle. He also shares insights on the differences between lifestyle and growth businesses, the keys to franchising success, and the importance of finding the right cultural fit.

Find Your Dream Franchise with Adam Goldman

Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Adam Goldman, a franchise coach and consultant and the author of The Franchisee Lifestyle. Adam, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Steve. So great to be here today.

Great to have you here. So, let’s start with your “Why.” What is your personal “Why” and what are you doing to manifest it in your business?

So, I really have two “Why’s.” Let’s start with them and they’re in no particular order. For my personal “Why,” it’s really to kind of have a great life in general. I’m talking about things such as working at my own schedule, being able to be there for my kids. My daughters are seven, nine, and 13 and I’m not getting any younger. So, to kind of make the best out of this time through travel or through fitness or whatever that might be, and my business allows me to do that. In many ways, my business is a lifestyle business. And number two, my “Why,” when it comes to my company, is really I’m here to help people. So, what that means is my work is, I almost see myself as a dating agency between individuals and franchise brands. Share on X So, the way I’ve structured my business is I’m really customer focused and really candidate focused, meaning I spend much of my day because of the systems I have in place that really allow me to have that biggest impact with my candidates, to get to know them better and to make that good match. And even after I’ve made that match to kind of have a relationship with them afterwards. And I’m very blessed to have a situation like this.

That’s interesting, and we’ll get into what you do and being a franchise coach. But what struck me that you mentioned in your introduction is that you said that it’s very much a lifestyle business. And I think you’re not just preaching franchise, you are a franchisee yourself. Or are you not?

No, I’m actually not a franchisee per se. I’m part of a network. But we’re not a franchise organization.

Okay, well, some of the franchise coaching organizations are franchises.

That’s right, that’s correct. We’re not one.

You’re not one, okay. So then my question is, what differentiates in your view, a lifestyle business from maybe a growth business or whatever the other category you call it? And what are the pros and cons?

That’s a great question. The way I see a lifestyle business is being one with flexibility. I have friends that are amazing entrepreneurs and I love them to death, but they have young kids, they don’t see them. They might be traveling on a roadshow all year long. And I’m just not willing myself to kind of, for me, it’s about time. What kind of hours you’re working, what kind of flexibility do you have on a day to day basis?

That makes sense. That’s a great perspective. And I have not really considered this before. So it’s a great argument in favor of a franchise or any other kind of lifestyle businesses. And do you consider franchises as more likely to be lifestyle businesses as opposed to maybe growth businesses? What is your view on that?

So, I think franchises could be both depending on which one it is. So, let’s talk about it being a lifestyle business. If you have an amazing system that’s working and maybe it’s one where you’re managing it through managers and it’s a low employee headcount, then it could be a lifestyle business. Now, by the way, just because a business starts out as a lifestyle doesn’t mean it can’t be growth. And let’s say something’s pure growth. I might have an amazing opportunity. I have friends that are multi-unit owners that don’t necessarily have obligations outside of their work, and they’re able to scale these things up, and that’s kind of become their life, and they’re okay with that.

So basically, a franchise can be either or both?

Absolutely. And look, I’m gonna throw a wrench in this, Steve. The same franchise that was a growth business could be a lifestyle business down the road. It just all depends on the cycle of the business.

That’s interesting, which means that maybe there’s a restaurant and you grow it to capacity and then there’s nowhere to grow anymore without starting another unit. And if you don’t want to, then it becomes a lifestyle business.

Yes, absolutely. I mean, look, my own example is when I owned my office cleaning company, my day-to-day at the beginning was much different than eight years in. We were already established. I had more employees working. It was not a lifestyle business at the very beginning. It was very hands-on, working on Sundays as well and just trying to build this thing up.

Yeah, I like it. I mean, you’re kind of flipping my script because generally I look at growth businesses as something maybe more valuable or has more potential or has certain advantages over lifestyle businesses. But certainly you’re opening my eyes up to the advantage of lifestyle businesses. And it really depends on the life of the individual that they want to live, whether they choose one or the other. That’s great. So, let’s talk about franchises and let’s talk about your framework that you have developed or you’re using, helping mentees pick a franchise. So someone you’re coaching, what do you look at? What are the three or four things that you look at to determine what could be a good franchise for them?

So, the first one I’m looking at is sales versus execution. Meaning how good of a salesperson is this person? Are they really sales heavy, the system, or is it more something that has an engine where I don’t care who that person is, it’s gonna be successful? The second thing I’m looking at is full versus part-time. There’s a kind of a misconception, Steve, in my industry that every single franchise business is flipping burgers in the back for a brick-and-mortar retail. That’s not the case. There are a lot of part-time or semi-absentee opportunities. The third framework is brick-and-mortar versus a service business. Again, misconception, franchising, first thought, quick service restaurant, fast food. My candidates I connect with 75 industries and many of them are non-brick-and-mortar businesses. In fact, 70 to 80% of my placements last year were non-brick-and-mortar. And that’s really an interesting way to kind of divide it between brick and mortar storefront and service companies.

So, give me an example of brick-and-mortar. So obviously a restaurant would be a brick-and-mortar unless it’s maybe a home delivery service. I don’t know. But what delineates between a brick-and-mortar and the pure service? What are the features of each?

The main definition of the difference is one is a storefront, like a restaurant of a fitness studio. And the second one does not have a storefront. Now, they might have a physical location to store product, but it’s not something that’s on Main Street and that’s retail.

Do you find that most franchises are B2C rather than B2B?

In my experience, many of franchises are B2C as opposed to B2B. There are B2B franchises, no question, but B2C tends to be more popular in my industry.

Do you have any insights as to why that may be?

I have no idea. It’s a great question. So, I mean, I think, look, if you look at a process, it’s got to be something that’s cookie cutter. And my only take on that is that, and look, there are commercial-related businesses. My business was B2B. I dealt with commercial cleaning. I’m sure you could appreciate that the local regulation in California, when it comes to doing services towards business, might be different than other places. That might be part of it, of regulation state by state.

So maybe when you have a B2C business, it’s easier to tailor it to a specific niche where it becomes pretty cookie cutter. You can systemize it and then teach someone to do it, whereas a B2B may be more distinct. I mean, the customers are more or less alike when it’s B2B than when it’s individuals?

That’s one theory. No one’s ever asked me more B2B or more B2C and more importantly why. I haven’t really spent much time thinking about that. That’s my theory.

Yeah, no, no, it’s very interesting. So, you’re talking about full-time and part-time, so how can someone run a franchise part-time?

So, number one, they have to be good. I have this really cool guy here in Houston and he ran a fitness studio. It was Pilates. He’s a pastor on the side. So he has his church. He’s just good with people. You gotta, hopefully, if you’re a successful pastor, you gotta be good with people. So, the way he ran it on the side is, in the morning, he sat down for coffee with his manager, Monday through Thursday, for an hour. And that’s how he kind of ran it. Went to his church, and then the next day he saw them at 8 to 9 AM. He had a good person that was running it day to day, and that’s actually one way of doing it part time. Every franchise system is different, but that’s one example of one way to do that. I have certain businesses that are more hands-off than others. If I think about a market like salon, suites, which are just kind of a situation where it’s a real estate play and very hands-off, no employees whatsoever, you take space and you rent it out to beauty professionals, pretty easy once this thing’s up and running to run it on your cell phone or your computer. I mean you don’t have any employees at all, it’s pretty hands-off.

Very interesting. What about the sales versus execution paradigm? And maybe I misunderstood, but you said that you’re looking at this person is good at sales or you can have a solution for them even if they’re not good at anything. I mean, you didn’t use this word exactly, but what did you mean by that? And is execution not a talent? Do people not have to be good at execution to run an all sales franchise?

So, look, let’s kind of talk about sales heavy franchises. I have franchises in my inventory where the requirement of the person running the business is they’ve got to be good at selling. They need to, it might not necessarily be door to door, but it’s got to be someone that’s comfortable and kind of showing their face and maybe even being the one going out on appointments or hiring to have someone like that. Or very quickly, many of them actually require the owner operator to actually be good at sales. In many ways, you’re buying a sales job. That’s one bucket. I’ve got another bucket of franchises. Sometimes things kind of fit in between where you don’t have to be a great salesperson. You could be someone that’s an amazing operator, but you hate selling. You might even hate face-to-face contact with customers. You might prefer to be in front of a computer. And look, my example for this is that I have businesses that have leads that are just coming, just unbelievable amount of leads. So, for instance, in Houston, where I live, in swim schools, it’s easier to get into private school than to get into a swim school. And that means that when my friend owns a swim instruction franchise, he has 200 kids on his waiting list. It becomes less of an issue of finding kids to actually swim than actually finding people that will be the swim instructors.

Yeah. So, some people say hiring is the new sales.

Yes.

Sometimes it’s selling people to be your employee on being at your employees is much harder and find the right people. So let’s switch gears here. Let’s talk about what makes a brand successful. So, you represent many brands. It’s hard to get to qualify, to be even on your roster of brands. What are the kind of brands that you want to work with that can have the potential to be successful?

So, look, I would say that what makes a brand successful, in my opinion, is if they’re able to create a network of franchisees that are successful themselves in making money. That’s the definition of success. They have to do two things. They as a franchisor need to scale, number one, but number two, they need to make sure that their franchisees are happy. Share on X Keep in mind, Steve, these two things are sometimes not in alignment because you might be able to expand very rapidly, but you might have all these franchisees that are unhappy. To be able to do both is a win. Frankly, as a franchisor, that’s not easy. I mean, that’s really kind of, I mean, because there’s so many people that are in the franchising world and being able to achieve both of these is challenging.

So, you’re basically running two businesses in one, is what you’re saying?

I’m saying that you got to expand and you need to take care of your franchisee base at the same time. That’s hard.

So you’re running your own business and then you’re building a different business, which is being a franchisor and you have to be able to juggle both.

So what I’m saying is, actually I’m not talking about running your own separate business. Let’s just say you just decided to go into the franchising world. You can be an amazing marketer. There’s stories about franchise brands that are amazing at selling, but horrible at execution with their franchise base. And then next thing you know, in a year or two, they’re all closing and they’re all unhappy. I’m saying that it’s two roles for the head office. Number one to actually expand, but number two, to actually make sure that they’re happy and this model’s good.

Yeah. But isn’t it the same for any business? They have to get new customers and then you have to serve those customers. So they need to use and they need the delivery skills at the same time.

Absolutely. Look, it’s the same thing, but this is a little bit more challenging because you’re herding cats. You’re dealing with all these people that want to be entrepreneurs, that have gone ahead and invested many times much of their life savings, and they have expectations from you. And sometimes these expectations aren’t in your disclosure document. And sometimes, frankly, the expectations aren’t realistic or aren’t reasonable. But that doesn’t matter. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They expect you to actually perform and to be making tons of money yesterday.

Yeah, that’s interesting. So what about the other side? So what makes for a successful franchisee?

Well, first thing is they have to find the right system, because it’s very hard to throw a dart and be like, oh my gosh, I found this amazing franchise. Another misconception in my industry is that people think, oh, all franchises are the same. That’s not the case at all. It’s kind of like a marriage. I see my role as being like eHarmony or Match.com where I’m trying to make this perfect fit. And presuming they have that perfect fit, I coach my candidates that they have to see themselves as being a silver bullet. And what I mean by that is, is that what makes a successful franchisee is someone that’s done everything in their power to be successful. One of my favorite mentors that I met when I was in Eastern Europe, at the beginning of my career, told me that the difference between excellence and average is just working 2% more. And so I liken that to being a franchisee. Have you made relations with the head office that you haven’t had before? Do you have people inside the system that are like you or that are mentors that you can cultivate and then you can kind of rely upon to satisfy, to actually do a little bit better from your business point of view.

So, a franchisee has to be a highly coachable person?

Absolutely. I mean, if you’re the kind of person and we can talk about this, but like if you’re the kind of person that that doesn’t want to have golden arches, you want to have golden circles and you want to sell kebabs instead of hamburgers, you probably shouldn’t be in the franchising world.

So, can an entrepreneurial person be a good franchisee in your opinion?

Absolutely, but there are different types of entrepreneurs. I think of myself as being an entrepreneur. I’m just the kind of entrepreneur that kind of needed help on the operations side. There are operational people that want better operational excellence. They want to be in a system. I mean, the successful franchisees, even ones that are very entrepreneurial minded that are willing to follow the system and see the value in the system come back to me. And they say to me, Adam, I want to thank you, because you have saved me by making these matches, all this money and mistakes I otherwise would have made.

So, who is the wrong candidate for a franchise? Let’s say someone coming out of corporate America and they had some level of success as an executive, they have the money to invest in a franchise, they need to find that new living. They are not yet 45, 50 years old. They can’t retire yet. So they have to make it successful and they still don’t work out. So, what prevents people from succeeding if they kind of have the high level criteria?

There are these black swan events like COVID. Where you buy a fitness franchise and then you get shut down, you’re undercapitalized. But in my opinion, the number one reason is it’s just a bad fit. They’ve done it on their own. They’ve actually decided to invest in something they probably shouldn’t have invested in before. If you do your homework and you find something that really fits what you’re looking for from a culture point of view and from a characteristic point of view, your odds of success are quite high.

But surely not everyone succeeds.

I get it.

Yeah. So, what happens? Why is it that some people don’t succeed?

So, if I look back at my past of things that haven’t worked out, it’s been a cultural fit. It’s been something where someone is a white collar person and they buy a blue collar business and they’re used to having all these things in corporate America. And then they’re in this business. It probably isn’t the right business for them. And then they say, wait a second here, I made the wrong choice. And it’s already too late. They realize, wait, I really don’t wanna be involved in a service business. I don’t wanna be managing these employees. I don’t wanna be making estimates. This is different than what I thought this might be. I’m used to working in my cush job, and this is not the right fit for me.

Yeah, I can see that. Do you find that the coach is able to eliminate most of these dead ends and can avoid the pitfalls that people can fall into?

I do, but I actually, look, I’m someone that comes from the IT industry, Steve. And what I would say is this, that I think there are two different things when it comes to IT errors. There’s user error and there’s a system error. And if I look at the, I can make the most amazing match in the world, it could be Chick-fil-A in an amazing location, but the person’s not gonna do the work, then it’s not gonna work out no matter what.

Okay, that’s fair. So let me ask you in closing, what is the most important question any entrepreneur should ask themselves in your opinion?

What’s their “Why?” I mean, in general, if it’s franchise or not. Meaning, why are you doing this? How does success look like for you? How do you measure success? What kind of KPM do you measure? I’m a huge Jesse Itzler fan. He’s the one that wrote a book. He’s one that married to Sarah Blakely. The Spanx founder, and just an amazing entrepreneur. And he has a different philosophy on different things. But look, it’s really understanding what you’re doing. And it’s not a question only about your business, but it’s about your life in general. And is your business, is this the kind of thing that’s really taking you to where you want it to take you to, your life in general?

Yeah, I feel the same way that, what’s your ideal life and the business can be a vehicle if you’ve got the right business to it. But what is it that you really want out of life and then maybe reverse engineer into the business that you need.

And look, that’s the number one reason why people invest in franchises. Because many people have this drive to start something. And a great franchise brand is a great vehicle to kind of get you there if it’s done right.

Okay, so a fascinating thing. There are a lot going for a franchise. So if people would like to explore whether they could be a good franchisee or whether there are franchise formats that could be exciting or inspiring for them, how should they go about this?

So, my company, Franchise Coach, provides a free service that’s a matchmaking service between potential franchisees and brands that are pre-screened that are in 75 different industries. And the next step is, if anyone’s interested in this, is to go ahead to my website, franchiseadam.com, schedule a quick 15-minute chat with me. If I don’t think you’re fit, I promise to let you know. Alternatively, you can go to franchisecoach.net to just find out a little bit more about our brand and also to just go ahead and to book a time there as well.

Okay. So, franchisecoach.net, franchiseadam.com.

That’s correct. That’s right.

So do check it out. So, Adam knows his stuff, I read his book. It’s a very good one. Franchisee Lifestyle. So if you’re interested to potentially become a franchisee, even if you are thinking about becoming a franchisor, I would recommend this book. It’s a good one. It’s a quick read too. And some customer stories as well. So you can really put yourself in the shoes of the franchisee and what they need to do. So, check out his book on Amazon and check out Adam’s websites and I think you’ll enjoy it. So, Adam, thanks for coming and sharing your perspectives on franchising. Fascinating. And those of you listening to the show. If you enjoy this, give us a like and review follow us on YouTube and help us push the show to a bigger audience. Thank you for coming and thanks for listening.

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