227. GG The Franchise Guide with Guiseppe Grammatico

Are you tired of the same old 9-to-5 routine? Dreaming of being your own boss and building a successful business? Get ready for a story that will completely change your perspective. Discover the incredible opportunities that await you in the world of franchise business ownership.

Join us on Average Joe Finances as our guest Giuseppe Grammatico shares the key to unlocking your entrepreneurial success and attaining the ultimate goal: financial freedom.

In this episode:

• Understand the advantages of franchising as a business model and how it can help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals.
• Discover alternative funding options that can make starting a franchise more accessible and affordable than traditional options.
• Explore the benefits of semi-passive and fully passive ownership in a franchise business, giving you more control over your time and lifestyle.
• Learn about the importance of following the franchise process and how it can lead to greater success and profitability in your business.
• And so much more!

Key Moments:

00:05:07 - The Role of a Franchise Coach
00:08:53 - Finding the Right Franchise
00:09:32 - Additional Considerations
00:14:08 - Funding Options for Franchises
00:16:22 - Creating a Financial Plan
00:17:06 - Boosting Retirement Funds through Franchising
00:18:16 - Timeline for Opening a Franchise
00:20:42 - Semi-Passive and Fully Passive Franchise Ownership
00:28:07 - The Importance of Following the Franchise Process
00:29:22 - Franchise Feedback and Menu Changes
00:35:46 - Get Clear on Your Goals and Find the Right Mentor
00:37:46 - The Importance of Working with a Coach 

Find Giuseppe Grammatico on:

Website: https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gg-the-franchise-guid

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWsxLRngbxJEH2m8w-ptYw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GGTheFranchiseGuide/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gg_the_franchise_guide/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ggrammatico 

Average Joe Finances®

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About Mike: https://mikecavaggioni.com

Show Notes add-on continued here: https://averagejoefinances.com/show-notes/

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See our full episode transcripts here: https://podcast.averagejoefinances.com/episodes

Transcript

Average Joe Finances: 0:00

Hey, welcome back to the average Joe finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today we have a fellow paisan on Giuseppe Grammatico. So Giuseppe, thank you so much for taking the time today and joining me on the podcast.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 0:13

Mike looking forward to it. Yeah, it's a small world, right? We're all I feel like we're from the the same area here in the East coast. So that's awesome.

Average Joe Finances: 0:19

Yeah, Yeah. Absolutely. That's before we hit record. We were talking about that. Just the Jersey shore in general. I used to go vacation up there. So just really good time. Yeah, so really awesome to have you on. I'd like to start these things off the way I start every podcast and that is we want to know more about you. So if you could. Okay. Share a little bit about yourself. Share your story. Tell us who is Giuseppe Grammatico.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 0:43

So yeah, Giuseppe Grammatico. That's a mouthful. It's Italian for Joseph. A lot of people don't know that. Born and raised in New Jersey. Married to a beautiful wife, Anita, and two children. Two teenagers in the house now, officially, here in New Jersey. Avid soccer fan, pizza fanatic. That's a little bit about me, but we are started my career family came over on first generation started in the restaurant business and then said, you know what? I want to go to college. I have this I loved investments, personal finance became one of the youngest series seven licensed brokers work for pain Weber at the time, not now UBS. And went down that, that route was a financial advisor and investment wholesaler and just didn't feel like I learned a ton, but didn't feel like it was the right fit for me ended up going back to grad school, did the corporate thing for a while and said, you know what? I have a passion for business. Working in the the restaurant as a kid and growing up into my twenties, but I don't like that specific industry due to the hours, what else is out there. So I stumbled across a franchising, started working with a franchise coach and bought my first two franchises back in 2007. And shortly after I said, you know what, this helping people. Own a business, one of the largest investments they'll make that sounds it was really enjoyable, the process. So I became a franchise coach and consultant shortly after. So it's been a fun ride. I jokingly say I help people avoid financial not finance. I should say divorces for married couples, because I like to include everyone and make sure they're on the same page, but really love what I do. And. Enjoy helping people throughout the entire process.

Average Joe Finances: 2:24

Awesome. Yeah. I really appreciate that response and a lot to unpack there, right? Because you said when your family first came to the States they started off in the rest in the food industry business, right? In restaurant. It's funny cause when my grandparents came here they had a deli in in our hometown, where we lived at central Islip. And they had this deli and the house was like attached to it. And it was just, that was just how we grew up. And. Later on, we all moved on to their own things. My dad had his own business, right? My uncle's got into like real estate and everything. And Oh and funny thing I want to point out too, since you had mentioned the translation of Giuseppe from Italian to English is Joseph. That's actually my middle name is Joseph. But the actual Joseph, not Giuseppe. Okay. And that's funny because when you're coming on this show, this is called Average Joe Finances. So it's a perfect name, to come on the show.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 3:11

I was average joe. That's it.

Average Joe Finances: 3:12

Yeah.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 3:13

I still have the Average Joe. The Average Giuseppe. Average Giuseppe for the Italian

Average Joe Finances: 3:17

crowd. There you go. Yeah. So it's interesting to see a similar dynamic in just the way it was for our families when they came to the States, right? Starting off on their own, trying to live that American dream, start their own business. And then, you went to school, like you did your own path and then decided, Hey, I want to get into business. This is what I want to do. But then you got into franchising, right? So getting into franchising and experiencing that. And seeing how helpful it was, right? You want to be able to help other people do that. So I think that's really awesome. I had someone on not too long ago, and this is what we were talking about. We were talking about franchising. As a matter of fact, these episodes might be very close to being back to back. Which is good. I think too it'll be like a little series. But it, what I find really interesting about the franchising industry is. If you get into the right one, it's it's essentially like a business in a box that's handed to you. And a lot of the stuff that you have to go through at the very beginning of starting a business to what you get with the franchise right away, puts you like two to three years ahead of starting it on your own. And like most businesses will take, it averages about five years, before you see if you're going to make profit or not. And what I've noticed, I have friends that do friend have some franchises, and what I've noticed within the first year or two, they made their money back and they're profitable. And I'm like, okay, this is really neat. So it's actually something I've been looking at for a little while. So I think it's it's awesome that now I'm having a couple franchise folks come on the show and I get to talk to you guys about this. But anyway, so if you could let, just talk to me a little bit about. What it is that you actually do as a franchise coach or a consultant, like, how are you helping people get started in the business?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 5:01

Yeah. I appreciate that. Its overwhelming out there because really I help people figure out one thing and it's, should I own a business and then should that business be a startup or a franchise? And because the franchise is not a good fit for everyone, it's for the, it's for the person that wants the systems in place that the guide, the blueprint to get them up and running much quicker. So what I help people with is lots of education, figuring out, talking about the differences, not the pros and cons, but the differences between a franchise and a startup we talk about the types of ownership, full time ownership. Semi absentee ownership, where you can keep your job and have a business on the side and then semi passive, which is a new category where you're investing much less time in the business. And for that benefit, there's an added fee. You pay almost like a management company similar to a hotel concept. It's an overwhelming process. And what we're seeing is people are. Just like myself, by the way, I'm guilty of this. They're doing, they're researching in reverse. They're looking for the hot franchise. And then trying to make it work for them. So it's this is great. This is this franchise is opening up all over the place across the country. I should own one. Yeah, they're open 7 days a week. Yeah it's very low ticket, low margin, but they're just, they're opening up all over and you start to settle and settle to the point where it's nowhere near the business you were looking at. My role is a franchise coaching and consultant is to say, let me level the playing field. Let me educate everyone, whether you have money, you don't have money you're in the accumulation phase. Let's talk about what a franchise is, and that's a proven system. You do get that unfair advantage, like you said, what's your time worth? So the franchisor has already figured out the best way of doing business. So yes, you may pay a 20, 30,$50,000 franchise fee, but what would that have cost? Just an hours, blood, sweat, equity, figuring the systems out may, may take you two years to, to figure out this system. So we really boil it down to. What is the ideal business look like? So it's called reverse engineering. It, I did a show on this about just about any decision you make, figure out what your ideal day is. What are you doing daily? What's your skillset? Combine the skill set in an average day. So if you love sales and you love, going on appointments and working with with the potential clients, that could be your role in the business. Where are you located? Are you in Hawaii? Are you in long Island? Are you in New Jersey? Is it a physical location or are you working from home? Are there lots of employees or less? Are they contractors? Are they W two? And the list goes on and we really. Figure out without naming the industry or looking at the specific franchise, the ideal business. And once you get clear on getting rid of all the distraction, figuring out ideally what you would enjoy the most, because sustainability is key, not making money your first year, but making money for a long periods of time. Once we look at that, then. We go back to the franchise companies to see if there's areas available territory availability. We call it. Is the investment in line to the financials meet the requirements? It's, are there any resales? Because we also work at resale. So we go back and have a conversation with the franchise company as well. So really figuring out the ideal fit. And once you do it that way, you can rule out 99 percent of the companies because in many cases. Bye. Bye. The financials aren't there. The territory sold. You're they want more of an extrovert person versus an introvert and vice versa. So we do all that in the back end to really help you and guide you throughout the way, figuring out funding, figuring out do you need a franchise attorney and that kind of thing.

Average Joe Finances: 8:32

Right on. Yeah. Okay. Already right off the bat some great info there, Giuseppe. Now, with what you were talking about, some of the things that I'm picking out here is. If somebody's considering, opening up a franchise, they want to start a business and they want to do a franchise. They want to be a franchisee. How would that person go about finding the right franchise? That's the right fit. For them.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 8:57

How would they go about finding?

Average Joe Finances: 8:59

Yeah. Like how do you know what's the right franchise for you?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 9:05

And it's simply figuring out first off, if a franchise is a good fit, if you do want that blueprint going down that list to say, okay, what, how do I want this business to essentially be structured? So the problem and the roadblock people hit is. I think it needs to be brick and mortar. I think I need to have a physical location because I feel like that's going to make me more money and I'm going to just squash this argument once and for all. There's no correlation whatsoever between a brick and mortar franchise. Or a franchise that's a larger investment to your returns. There's no correlation because you buy the more expensive franchise and you hate that business. You hate the number of employees. You hate everything about it. It's going to come through in the way you manage and the way you expand the business. And that business is ultimately going to suffer. Your employees are going to feel it and that kind of thing. So really, it's about figuring out what works for you. If you prefer. All things aside to work from home and not have that location. There you go. That alone is going to rule out a huge percentage of the Frank. So I'll give you two examples that alone, working from home and a business that allows you to keep your job and have a side business, a side hustle where you can keep the job and then also run the business via certain support systems, such as turnkey marketing and an in inbound call center. That will handle all your lead flow. Those two just areas alone can rule out, I would say 80 plus percent. Of the franchises out there, you want to go with the companies that are really strong and that can support you and, having a job, they may have to help you find a general manager. So once you start, every, it's like a funnel, you start adding different requirements and it starts narrowing down the search. And once we have the ideal. Five, six, seven characteristics of that business. Then we go back and say, okay, I have a short list of 10 companies that match that criteria. Let's see what's available because you may not meet the financial requirements. It may not be available in your market. So we start to scale it down. And ultimately the goal is really to get it down to two or three companies that you can spend a lot of time continuing the due diligence process.

Average Joe Finances: 11:14

Okay. Right on. Yeah. So a great way of really whittling it down to what's going to be the right fit. For that individual And it's good to know that, if you decide to do a franchise that works from home, it's going to already knock out 80%. So that's going to be a huge number gone. And it's going to help you like really narrow it down. So that's awesome. Now, speaking of. Funding, right? Because you had mentioned that somebody might not have the right or they might not be financially fit for a certain franchise. What if they are, but they don't have the funds to start it up? Like, how would somebody go about funding a franchise?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 11:54

Yeah, so lot, lots of potential options depending on your circumstances. We look at financial requirements. We typically look at liquidity and net worth, and those are requirements that the the franchisor will list and just say, Hey, anyone you bring to us, we wanna make sure that they're hitting these requirements because from a liquidity standpoint, you need to be able to open up the franchise, have three months, at least three to six months of working capital. Be able to pay your employees marketing your rent if it's a brick and mortar location. So that's we want to make sure that there's coverage there because it may take a little bit longer to get open or, you, you hit some roadblocks. Ultimately my recommendation is to contact a funding partner. That knows a lot about franchises. We work with a company by the name of Fran fund. And what they'll do is they'll do a full free analysis. And what they'll come back with is all your options. The options that they offer the services that they offer as well as services they don't offer. So to give an example that you are able to utilize if you qualify a retirement rollover, it's called a retirement a rollover for business startup, and you can use your retirement assets to fund it as long as that's coming from a previous employer. So if you're working with your current employer and their plan, you that you would not be able to use those funds, but you can use a previous employer if you decide to leave your job. That is one way of funding a business. The most popular has been the SBA loans. Where you put a percentage down and fund the rest that's a government back loan. But then you get, you get creative and look at other ways. So those are, services or I should say products that they offer, but then they go outside the box and say, okay we noticed that you have a ton of equity in your home. You can get a home equity line of credit, very simple and straightforward. And you would go right to your mortgage lender, or we can. Move away from the home and go right to our investments are non retirement investments. If you have an investable a taxable regular investment portfolio, you could take a loan on your money. So if you have, securities, mutual funds, stocks and things like that, individual holdings, you can take a loan on your own money without selling. The underlying security. Another way, traditional loans, family loans partnerships. We go into more detail, but I think the SBA loan home equity lines of credit in the retirement rollover has been the most popular. Long story short, if I summarize there, there are numerous options and in the event, you're financially not there. Fran fund as well as myself, we take a step back and say, okay, these are the numbers you want to aim for. Maybe your net worth is there, but your liquidity is a little bit light. Let's start maybe saving and talking in six months. You're at 25. Let's get you to, I'm making this number up liquidity. Let's maybe talk in six months and see if you're at that level. So they don't just say, Hey, we can't work with you. They'll put together a plan to work with you and set you up to get to those numbers.

Average Joe Finances: 14:49

Yeah, no, that's good to know. And that there's so many options that somebody can use to fund their franchise. I think what's really interesting is that, the fact that you can use this retirement rollover, so if you have been working for a while, and you've, in contributing to a 401k and IRA and things like that, and you're no longer with that employer. And the fact that you could take that and roll it into a franchise is absolutely amazing because if you think about the return, you're going to get. With starting that business, starting the franchise, as long as you, you're doing the right one for you, and you're going to put the time and effort into it, the return you would get with that will far exceed what you would get leaving it in the 401k. The fact that you can actually really boost what your retirement account. Or, or boost the money that you're going to get out of it by starting your own business is pretty awesome. The other thing too do you find it very common or do you see it very often that people will use like SBA loans? Cause I've. Seen that a lot, but I know like when it comes to SBA loans, it's a long process. Like it takes six months to get approved for an SBA loan. So if someone's starting that process now, or somebody wants to start, they're looking into getting into a franchise now how long of a window would you say that you need? Besides all the funding SBA loan, whether or friend fund whatever it is that they might be doing, what kind of window of time are they looking for from the time they decide, okay, this is the franchise that, I've worked with Giuseppe and this is the one that we came up with. That would be the best fit for me from that decision to when you actually open up and start the business. What kind of timeline are you looking at?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 16:27

Timeline it could be we've seen numbers between 2 and 3 months with with people I've worked with. Could it be longer? Absolutely. And that variable is 1st off, how big is the investment? But the biggest variable is if there's real estate involved, they want you to have that lease in place. In order to get approved, so that, that's gonna be the one when you're dealing with brick and mortar real estate locations. But if it's a service business, we've seen, two months is I'd say maybe the average we've seen it's come down. I'd say during Covid that number was greater. I would say it was closer to three. Part of it has to do with how quickly you're able to come up with the info. So to answer the question this way, prior to even looking at a franchise, get your financials in order, know where your accounts are, what your balances are. Big one, what your credit score is. I would encourage everyone to check their credit score today. If it's low typically the SBA, I believe they want I'm not, I don't know the exact, I think it's 680 to 700 in that range credit score. iF you have we just, we had work with someone who needed credit repair and I said, let's take care of that now, go back, find a company that can help you. They, I guess they had a credit card stolen in the past, so they had to do a little bit of a credit repair. That's not an overnight fix. And that, that took several months to, I think it took them a 90 days, if not more to get fixed. So do that, do an analysis, get everything together. Figure out and then take it a step further to everyone listening. Even if you're not even certain about a franchise, this is good. Put together what you make, what you take home, not what your salary is but what you're taking home, what's your monthly paycheck and what are your expenses? And what are you left over with? You're gonna, you're gonna have to have money aside when you start any business, franchise or not. You wanna have that buffer, that cushion, that financial cushion. And where can I cut back on expenses? And do I, can I cut back a little bit? I personally did when I started my first business. We didn't go out to eat. We ate at home. I'm not telling everyone how to have to do that, but that was a way for us to lower the monthly expense. So do a full analysis, see where you're at and make the fixes now before starting that, that lending process.

Average Joe Finances: 18:29

Sure. Yeah. So that's all that's great info right now. I want to ask you for. For people that are listening right now that are like, okay, you know what? Maybe franchising is something I want to get into, right? I want to start my own business. But I was more interested in what Giuseppe said about being semi passive or fully passive. So what does that kind of look like if somebody is doing this as a side hustle? I know you had mentioned that there are companies out there that will actually have That will actually run it essentially for you for a fee. But can you tell me the difference between how somebody would run a business as a semi passive franchise owner versus being a fully passive franchise owner?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 19:10

Yes. So with that more, that semi passive, very little time committed into the business. I don't want to say passive because it's, there's always going to be time. So I used, I use the term semi passive and really what that looks like is there's a fixed fee and your involvement essentially in the business is. Two, three, four hours a week whatever that franchise is requiring each brand is different. This is a, by the way, a brand new category. There's a handful of brands that we work with that fall into that care category. And it's not, that it's better than running a full time or semi absentee part time. It's people are coming back saying, I want an option outside of wall street. Yeah. I have all my money invested in large cap, small cap equities and things like that. But I want. Something out there that I can own, there's some tax benefit. I can have some say with what exactly the business does which you don't have, obviously, when you're owning securities. So it was really built for that. So you pay the fee. There's minimal involvement. You can live anywhere in the country, which is really nice and operate a franchise. If you're in New Jersey, I can operate it in California and vice versa. So it's really just minimal time. You're still involved in the business. You still own 100 percent of the business. It's just that your involvement is not, you don't physically have to be present. It's really a handful of zoom calls a month when you go. And by the way, this is, it's a new category. And there's about a handful of options out there with the semi absentee. It's really putting in a full, you have a full time job or you're a full time investor. And then this business is going to have a much greater. Time requirements, not going to be full time where you have to leave your job so it can easily be managed nights, weekends, maybe some hours during the week. And this is going to be more involvement where you hire a general manager, you're not hiring a management company through the franchise or, but that general manager is going to run the day to day. And in order to find this type of business, it's really figuring out which. Franchise companies will support me. And what does that look like? It may be turnkey marketing where they outsource and do the marketing for you at their location And those leads go to a call center where they pick up the phone answer questions They could potentially upsell and book appointments for you So again, each brand does it a little bit different, but this will allow you not to need an office because this is all outsourced for you for a fee at the home office allowing you to Free up and manage less people run the business from home so that you can have just say a service based business running from home where your staff is going directly to just say the homeowner maybe doing a painting service, a roofing service, a dog waste removal service service and allowing you to have a very small number of employees. And having that infrastructure, that support all taken care of for you. So definitely more involvement, but the trick to these these businesses are finding the ones that have strong systems that will help you find and train the general manager. And then the other part on you is needing to empower the general manager to make certain decisions. So you don't become a bottleneck in the business. That's the missing piece. I see people making, they look at the franchise. And then when they hire the GM, they just say, you can only make certain decisions. And that was the mistake I made. And I, going back, I said, I needed to empower that general manager day one, as opposed to down the road.

Average Joe Finances: 22:30

They're not delegating enough authority right up front. Yeah.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 22:34

You become a bottleneck.

Average Joe Finances: 22:35

I can understand though, at day one, like you, you got to build that trust and rapport first. At least in my opinion, I use so I have a VA, that, that works for me. And she is absolutely amazing, but it took some time before I was. Comfortable giving her certain accesses and certain things until like we built that relationship and built that rapport. And now she has access to all my stuff, right? I do my podcast and she takes it and then my editing team will just do their thing. But that's one of those things that took time and, she grew with me. So I could totally understand somebody that is, Just getting into a franchise and they hire GM and they're not comfortable giving, giving them all that authority right up front. But at the same time, you hired them for that job, right? So you already vetted them through the interview process. So I feel like that's one of those spots where I'm torn where it's I can see why you should, shouldn't bottleneck them from the start, but also I see why a lot of people would, because I've been there. And you even said it yourself too, like when you started yours, you had the same experience and the same problem as you, you bottleneck your GM right away. And, I feel like that's one of those areas where I feel like a lot of people are going to have a difference of opinions when it comes to what they should do with their GM.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 23:55

I agree. And that's one of those things. It's almost like you have to list out. I completely agree, by the way, you have to list out the things you eventually want them doing and start hammering away. Okay. Yeah, they're allowed to, for example, go minor stuff, give it allow a customer to get a credit. But if in the event, it was a something legal, just say something major, obviously you don't want them to be involved. So you slowly want to start delegating those tasks. So maybe, yeah, to your point, not day one, maybe it's every month it's little by little. So it's not all or nothing. It's like, all right, these are the 20 tasks. Let's do a couple a month until, we get to those 12 months, but yeah, certain decisions, those are always going to be delegated to the owner because they are high level. So yes, I absolutely agree.

Average Joe Finances: 24:39

All right awesome. Giuseppe we've talked a lot about. What somebody might be looking for when it comes to a franchise, right? But how does somebody know if they themselves are a good fit to be a franchisee?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 24:56

How do they know they're a good fit? So you need to number one want the business built for you. A franchise is not for someone that wants to create every single thing, from the service. To every workflow, to the types of vendors to, are we B two B, are we gonna be B two C? So really it's for some of that wants a system built for them. Number two you need to be open to following processes, processing system. The franchise companies, when they interview you, it's a two-way interview and they meet you if you can't follow the basic process of a franchise, for example. Stage one is fact finding through the franchise or stage two is validation and talking with employees. If day one, you just demand, I'm sorry, a franchisees day one. If you just say, no, I don't want to talk to you. I just want to talk to the franchisees and I want to do everything in reverse order. I'd probably say you're not a good fit for for a franchise because that is literally what a franchise is. It's a system. It's a process if you're if you're going to bad example, but I use it all the time. If you're buying a McDonald's and you want to introduce pizza to the menu, probably not a good fit for a franchise. Not to say there's not any autonomy. You definitely have say in the business and are okay in marketing and things like that. But the purpose is not to change the McDonald's menu per se, but it's really, that process, how involved do you want to be? Who's the general manager you hire? That kind of thing. So you're definitely involved. You definitely have flexibility, but the process is big. The process, wanting the business built for you. Those are some major things to consider when looking at a franchise versus a startup or non franchise business.

Average Joe Finances: 26:34

Oh that's great considerations for anyone to have. And I just want to point something else out to you. I would totally try a McPizza. Yes. Okay. So that might not be a bad thing. I would totally go for

Guiseppe Grammatico: 26:45

it. The 5 foot long was invented by franchisees at Subway. So I don't know if a lot of people know that, but so yes, they do. take feedback. They do have conventions and all that, but the intention wasn't to start adding or changing the menu, but they do take feedback from the the franchisees. So absolutely a great franchise company is going to listen to their franchisees for feedback.

Average Joe Finances: 27:05

Yeah. And I see a lot of subways actually probably most or all of them also serve pizza now too.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 27:11

Are they really? I didn't know that.

Average Joe Finances: 27:13

At Least a lot of the ones I've been to I they have it as an option. They they build it right there in front of you. You put all the toppings on and anyway, not gonna, we can go down a rabbit hole, especially because I know you're a pizza connoisseur just like me.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 27:25

Yes.

Average Joe Finances: 27:25

That's totally another thing. That's an East coast thing because we know what a good pizza tastes like. Sorry for everyone else out there, but it's true. Best pizzas on the East coast Northeast, right? So New York, New Jersey. Yeah, I guess New England. Yeah. Yeah. They have the best pizza, but.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 27:41

The New Haven style. Yup.

Average Joe Finances: 27:42

Yeah. New Haven. I actually,

Guiseppe Grammatico: 27:45

I like them all. So I leave it at that. I don't like to start arguments as that. We like them all, which I like better. It's a different story, but I do eat them all. So as you can tell, I've got to lose some weight.

Average Joe Finances: 27:55

Yeah, me too. Me too, man. Okay. We're not going to go down that rabbit hole. Cause we could probably talk about pizza all day. I know I could but speaking of, I think I'm going to have some pizza for lunch today. That sounds really great. Anywho So Giuseppe, I'd like to transition this into something that I call the final round. It's where I'm going to ask you the same four questions I ask everybody that comes on the show, and it gives us a better idea of how you are under a little bit of pressure which I'm sure you're going to crush it. So if you're ready to go we'll get this started.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 28:23

All right, let's go for it.

Average Joe Finances: 28:24

All right, Giuseppe, the first question of the final round is, what's the biggest mistake you've ever made when it comes to your finances, investing, real estate, or just business in general?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 28:38

I would say coming from the investment world is thinking I was properly, diversified. They said, don't put your eggs in all 1 basket investing in the stock market, mutual funds and stocks. And As I was opened up to assets, liabilities, and true diversification talked about cash flow really opened up my eyes to owning my own business. And that's where, I've created most of my wealth is owning businesses. Not to say I don't invest in the stock market, which I absolutely do, but opening my eyes to, to real diversification. It's, there's nothing wrong with owning real estate. Investing in the stock market and owning some businesses. I know we, in the financial world, we fall on the asset boxes, large cap, mid cap and growth and value and all that fun stuff, but nothing wrong with it. But don't put that all in the market, invest in yourself, own a business, own some real estate. That way if one area takes a hit, you have a few other areas to take care of.

Average Joe Finances: 29:32

Yeah, no, I love that. Me personally I, that's what I do too. I invest in the stock market, I have real estate and I have a business. So it's actually I have two businesses, but it's, those are the kinds of things that, that's real diversification. It's not just going into the stock market and getting into a whole bunch of different, funds or ETFs. Or, individual stocks it's not, true diversification is being in different investment, in, in general, different investments in general. So I, I definitely appreciate that answer. Okay. Giuseppe, the next question, you're going to see these kind of tie into each other is what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first got started and we'll say in the franchising industry.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 30:14

So I think, my biggest weakness was I would ask too many people for their opinion and recommendations when I truly felt strongly about something. And that's with running my business, when to hire a general manager, when to become a franchise, a coach and consultant, and people were very open, but I tended to ask too many people to the point where it actually, gave you offer more confusion than anything else. So I would say, and I, because I was opening up to whoever was open to having a conversation. So I think what I've learned and wish I knew was, trust your gut. Ask for advice for people that have been there. Don't ask someone that's never owned the business advice. They don't mean anything harmful by the advice they give, but they've never gone through. They've never. Invested their life savings and not been able to get paid, it's for several months like I did in my first business. So I think watch you ask advice for, and always follow your gut. Don't have people talk you into things. There's some some things I wish I had started sooner and, but because I took other people's advice and that's on me because I was open to asking. So trust your gut and move forward and don't look back.

Average Joe Finances: 31:23

Yeah. I just have to, I appreciate that answer because maybe it's a East coast Italian thing, but we're so open with people. And sometimes it could be to our own detriment where you bring too many people in and you get all this conflicting advice. And now you're stuck in a worse position than you were before you started asking those questions.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 31:42

Agreed.

Average Joe Finances: 31:43

They do it there too, and they do it, they don't mean spiritually.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 31:46

They don't mean anything by sometimes it's to protect you. Sometimes it's they've never done it before. So just be careful who you. Watch you ask advice from.

Average Joe Finances: 31:55

Yeah, now that's important. Make sure the person that you're asking advice from has had some skin in the game in that particular thing that you're asking them for. Okay, awesome. Giuseppe, the third question of the final round is, do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started out today? And we'll say somebody that's starting out in the franchise industry.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 32:19

Yeah. So this is someone, that's, I guess maybe starting their search. And I would say, get clear on what you want. It's as basic as it comes. And people are like, all right, what else is there? There's really, figure out what not today, but in the next five years, the next 10 years, where are you living? What kind of money are you making? Envision exactly, where are you living? What are you doing daily? The hours you're working? I know I've manifested that over you just by thinking and writing it down and looking at it. I'm not saying you stare at it and it's going to happen, but by looking at it, you start to get inspired. I have my goals. I have a Google document or a Google sheets, I should say. And I look at that every day and it's just, there's different goals that I have that I want to attain. And I Break them up into habits. So get very clear on what life looks like. What you enjoy doing. Not the how, right? Not how you're going to get there. That's where people get tripped up and end up not doing anything, but write it down and then figuring afterward not how to do it. And this is something I learned from Dan Sullivan who not who not how is the book is figuring out who can help me get there. The who is 10 times in many cases, 10 times more more important than the how, because the who is the person that's done it before. And they're going to help you expedite and say, you know what to get to. This income level, this is what, these are the things you have to do, not having to figure it out on your own, but the mentors the people that we discuss and work with they'll, they're able to help you get there faster, and then they're able to open up their networks. Just the network I have with you as well. So I think the who, not how is big and just getting clear on that. And once you have that all figured out, work with someone doesn't have to be me, but if you want to work with someone like myself, I can show you what that franchise may look like and how it will affect you that who can help you figure out what, should, estate planning per any, anything you're, you have a goal of working out, losing weight, you hire a coach, right? You could do the research odds are you're not going to do it. The coach is going to really motivate you and get you going. So I think having a good network of people is going to definitely save you a lot of time and a lot of money.

Average Joe Finances: 34:26

100 percent agree. I absolutely love that because I talk about who, not how all the time when it comes to whatever you're doing in life, like even down to my own podcast, when it came to, like, when I decided to outsource certain things, I knew that the editing was taking up too much time for me and I had to find the right person or right team to edit my podcast. And that was part of that who, not how. So I absolutely love that. I feel like a lot more people. Should take a take a second look at their business or businesses and see if they have the right people in the right spot, right? Making sure that they, the tasks that they not necessarily don't want to do but something that maybe you're not as good at that. Somebody else is better at let them do it.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 35:10

Absolutely.

Average Joe Finances: 35:11

And take that off your plate, and do the things that you're good at. And even sometimes the things that you're good at, if it takes up too much of your time, find someone else that could do it just as good and, outsource that as well. I love outsourcing. I do it all the time, so that's why I love that answer. Okay. You named a very good book there, but I'm also going to ask you this final question in the final round, and it's besides your own. Do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both? And give me something different than who, not how.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 35:41

There, there was an investment book and I I just, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name, so I have to pass on the investment book, but from a business standpoint, I think the book which I think I read maybe about a couple of years ago, it's called Traction by Gino Wickman.

Average Joe Finances: 35:54

Oh, yeah.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 35:55

And it's a great book. The they teach the entrepreneurial operating system and this has been extremely powerful in the franchise community. I'm working with someone, believe it or not, who's a surgeon. And he found that book and he implemented that in his practice and really what it comes down to our systems in place, but balancing if you look at the spokes of a wheel and having all areas balance, like your employees, your marketing business strategy, you go down the list. And making sure that you are constantly monitoring them, but not just, yeah, I'll check on it, but daily activities, KPIs put in place so that you're making sure everything is flowing because what good is this business when you have six spokes of a wheel, all five are doing really well, but you're losing employees. Morale is down. That's the lifeblood of many businesses is the staff. So making sure the, you find the right employees. That they're treated fairly, that they're motivated or compensated fairly. And so that, that book has helped both franchise and non franchise businesses. And I would encourage everyone to check it out. Check out the entrepreneurial operating system. They have some great programs in place to really help just about any business, so really a really good read overall.

Average Joe Finances: 37:06

Yeah. Absolutely love that. It is a great follow up to who not how, especially when it comes to building your business the right way. Those two books are going to help you really take it to the next level. So great recommendation. I've read traction. Amazing book. Amazing. Okay. So Giuseppe, that is it for the final round. Now, I do have one more question I want to ask you, and this is the most important question I'm going to ask you for this entire podcast, because the people that were listening, you might have someone here listening that's saying, Hey, you know what? I think I do want to start a franchise and I want to learn more. And I want to learn more about Giuseppe or his services and how he can help me. Speaking of that, where can people find more information about you? Do you have a website, any social media profiles people can follow? And then also, tell us about your book and where we can get your book.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 37:57

Awesome. I appreciate that. Yeah go right to the website. It's GG, my initials, the franchise guide, G U I D E. So ggthefranchiseguide.com. And you will have a right on there. You can book a call directly with me. It's on the upper right hand corner. You can click on the workshop, which is a video workshop of employee versus employer. And the the risks associated with being an employee and the risk with being an employer. People don't really realize the difference between the two. And so you can definitely check it out. We also have a podcast on there as well. There's 150 plus shows covering just about every topic on business ownership booking a call. We set up a 20 minute call with anyone that has. So anyone listening in, if you just have general questions on franchising, you don't have any savings, but you want to know where to start. Feel free to book a call. Our services are always a hundred percent free. There's no contracts with our agreements. We are paid directly from the franchise companies, like a real estate agent or an executive recruiter. So there's no risk aside from 20 minutes. And my guarantee to you is within 20 minutes, we can figure out together if the potential for a franchise being a good fit, simple as that. Our next call, we dive into more of the specifics the book. Franchise freedom, which is also the name of the podcast is my exact blueprint of how I found my first two franchises back in 2007. It's my gift to anyone listening in. You can download it. It's a 48 pages. It's a 30 minute read. It's the exact blueprint I used goes into specifics like the who, not how I'm building teams and things like that. And then I offer my service over and beyond. So if you're not ready for a chat, check out the book. But we'd love to speak with you. And again, even if it's a basic question, you need clarity, your timeframes in two years, feel free to give me a call. Be more than happy to help out where I can.

Average Joe Finances: 39:49

Awesome. Thank you so much for that. I'm going to make sure I have all the links in the show notes for our listeners to go and follow. They can copy and paste or click away. The only thing I ask is that you please don't do it while you're driving, but definitely go check out Giuseppe's book, check out his podcast, but check out his website. And if franchising is something you're interested in, set up a 20 minute call with him. Hey Giuseppe, this was fantastic. And to close things out, do you have any final thoughts for our listeners?

Guiseppe Grammatico: 40:17

Final thoughts don't give up, get bet on yourself, don't don't get overwhelmed with the, the level of information out there with the internet, figure out, get really clear on, where you want to be bet on yourself. Don't, you don't have to have tons of money to open up a business. You don't need tons of education. Really, figure out as I mentioned before, and I repeat myself as where you want to be. And then go full force, educate, talk to great people and move forward. It's a lot going on, lots of distractions. We were at the point, where there's just way too much information. What the heck do I do with it? Focus and talk to a few people. And if you're currently not happening, happy at your job and you want change isn't going to happen automatically. You're going to have to get out of your. Comfort zone and really just take charge of your future and career. Think of how unhappy you'll be if you stay in that current situation. So I say, go for it. We only live once and why not bet on yourself? So that's that's my advice.

Average Joe Finances: 41:12

Yeah, I absolutely love that bet on yourself. Fantastic. Giuseppe, again, thank you so much for taking the time today to join me on the podcast and give my listeners so much great advice and golden nuggets. There's a lot of great things to take away from this episode. So on behalf of all my listeners, thank you so much.

Guiseppe Grammatico: 41:31

Thank you, Mike. It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Average Joe Finances: 41:33

Absolutely. And Hey, I also want to thank all of my listeners for joining me and our special guest Giuseppe Grammatico on the Average GeoFinances podcast. Go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Giuseppe. Aloha from Hawaii and have a great rest of your day.