Lance Hood (FranPro): 0:01

Today we have Tom Dufore, CEO of the Big Sky franchise team. Tom, welcome to the call. Thanks for having me. Lance, Can you share a little bit about what brought you to working in franchising?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 0:16

Well, part of it was just it happened to be my first job, probably not unlike a lot of folks in franchising. For many it's not something you necessarily think about doing. When I first came into it, my really only exposure was through the E-Meth, revisited by Michael Gerber. There was a section he talks about franchising and so on. So that was really my connection outside of being a customer of the local fast food place, and so I fell in love with the concept. I love entrepreneurship, so helping entrepreneurs support and grow other entrepreneurs. It was just a blend of all things that I loved, all in one place.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 0:55

Well, for someone who's not familiar with Big Sky franchise team, can you give us the scoop on what all you do for people?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 1:03

Sure. So at Big Sky franchise team we help companies franchise their business. So in the franchise world we're very early on with that franchise. Or I consider us, how I view, visualize us we're really in the threshold in between small business and franchise, or so we're helping bridge that gap, or create the bridge for that small, successful business owner that says we have something here, there's really an opportunity. How can we go and expand this? And, as I always advise all of our prospective clients most of which, by the way, never franchise that if you have a business or you're thinking of expanding, you have to consider franchising. Now, whether you do or not is totally up to you, but it is a distribution model worth considering for just about any business.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 1:53

Yeah, and if you're willing to give up a little control, you can. Other people will invest their dollars and manage the locations for you. So it's just a great win-win. It's a great team. What makes Big Sky franchise team different from other people that help people franchise their business?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 2:16

Yeah, I would say what makes us unique or different? First off, is our commitment to educating and content creation. So we produce weekly a podcast called Multiply your Success, a weekly webinar series, or I should say near weekly. We do three to five of those a month where we have specific educational content for franchise or to help them grow, and those are all available on our blog website, youtube and so on, and so I would say that's one big differentiator. The second is that we are we're not I would say we're not as I volume is other organizations, and part of it is for me that I just love doing this.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 3:04

I really like working with our client, so I personally am involved with a lot of our projects and enjoy that aspect of it, and so that that, for me, is something that having that personal touch as part of our experience. And then our three step process, and the first step of our proven three step process is called the franchise blueprint, and that's a trademark service of ours and we actually offer that as a standalone. Really think of it as a feasibility study. So someone says I'm looking for a little more. Maybe I've been thinking about franchising my business, but I don't know if I want to. I need some more information on that. Our franchise blueprint is a perfect starting point to help provide more than just maybe what they might think of as a quote sales pitch with a Franchise consultant like me or or someone else, where it really digs into numbers and details and specifics so that they can make a decision from a more informed perspective.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 4:02

Well, what are a few of the biggest kind of turn arounds or disasters? You've helped company through, companies through, because you know some companies. When they come to you it's a train wreck and they need help and you're able to make some tweaks, give them some guidance and watch them turn it around. That's probably one of the most rewarding things. Can you share some of those Sure?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 4:24

yeah. So I think one really exciting one is a brand I've been working with in our firms, been working with for about 18 months, about a year and a half or so, and it's a brand called wingers and this has been a really exciting brand. The founder and the owners of the business have a tremendous background in full service restaurant franchising decades of experience, and then eventually started their own brand called wingers Wingers, which is they do wings and have full bar and it's a great place and and they really focus on these what I consider tertiary markets. So they're not going to be in the big city, they're going to be out in A town that that's kind of in the middle of nowhere often times. But that that's their market focus. They've in because of their operations background. Their average unit volume is Huge. I mean it's for considering where these franchisees are located. It's it's very high, in my opinion, and they and they're really committed to it.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 5:33

Now, what they did, here's where the problem was.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 5:35

The problem was they ran into some hiccups during the financial crisis In 0809 and decided to kind of pause and put things on hold for a little while with franchising.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 5:49

So their problem was they had about 20 or so franchisees in their network and Now, after almost 10 or so years of being dormant on franchising, is that well, how do we get back into franchising?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 6:02

We've kind of been operators and Training, supporting everything's great at system wide and they said now we're ready to get back into franchising. So we came in and help them build out a model and a plan for Getting back in the market, almost kind of like a startup again for them to re revisit that and rebooted, and so that's what we've been helping them through to launch that and I think it's a huge success for them. They were able, in the first 12 months working together, to add three new franchisees into the system and and the progress is continuing to be structured down that same pathway, where it looks like this year is going to be a solid year for them as well and Kind of the slow growth that they are very happy with and adding the right, right candidates or right franchisees in the right markets that work for their brand. So To me it's one of our most recent what I think is a huge success and it's one that you know the numbers aren't electrifying, but for this franchise or it's a it's a big difference maker for them.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 7:08

Well, what are a few of the signs you've seen when you work with businesses that they can like here and maybe take action on if they identify that that might be them. What are some signs you see a business is struggling or is going to struggle when it comes to starting a franchise or or ramping up their franchise.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 7:29

Yeah. So first and foremost in and we'd spoken previously a little bit about this is having a franchise sales process in place. And for most problem areas that I see, it's not the actual process that's the problem. It's that they don't have a process or the process is not clearly identified and known by all members of their team and organization. So you know, get that process down and be clear about it, be specific. And the second is a commitment to franchise recruitment, just marketing and staying consistent with some kind of a marketing budget to bring steady stream of new prospects into the pipeline. The other is going to be on the training side. Same thing. I've seen this happen many times. Something simple, but one franchise sales team does a great job of taking a candidate through the process and then they forget to do a handoff to the training and support team. And I've had where a franchisee called back two or three weeks later and said by the way, I haven't heard from anyone and no one from the operations team reached out to that candidate or to that franchisee.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 8:47

I thought boy that is horrible and should have never happened in some somewhere. So again, this comes down to a little bit of a process, little checkpoint to make sure that that doesn't happen to your brand. You really want to avoid that. And then that ongoing support to me is critical and the number one complaint that I hear from franchisees and I've been a multi-unit franchisee in the past and some of the things that I have found I think it all boils down to communication from franchisee or to franchisee and that the communication seems like it's a two-way street.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 9:26

First off, that there is communication. We want communication from the franchise or to the franchisee to communicate what's happening. Something even simple like a little newsletter once a month makes a big difference to those franchisees. So communication and that communication can be two ways. Franchisees understand they're not going to get everything they want, but they do want to be heard, and so that's an important aspect to keeping what I think to keep satisfied and hopefully happy franchisees in your network. So those are a couple areas that I think could be helpful.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 10:03

What about things that you've seen that businesses that are really succeeding doing, Like? What are those businesses doing differently from the companies that are just not getting traction?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 10:16

Yeah, I, first and foremost is a focus on franchisee unit economics and that that reference to Wingers in the past Preview in the previous question is they they've focused so much on the franchisee unit economics. How can they help their franchisee increase revenue, increase profitability, increase customer engagement and customer satisfaction? You know, really Thinking about it from that standpoint and focusing on that. So the ones that I see do well franchise or is it do well. They're focused on that number one and just that. They have a franchisee focus in general. So I always describe that it If, if is a franchise or your, whenever you make a decision, if, if the first question you ask is how can my franchisee, how does this help my franchisee, make more money or save money or help the franchisee out in some way, you're generally going to be it Okay.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 11:18

The problem becomes when the franchise or starts asking the first question they ask themselves is how does this help me? Or, as the franchise, or make more money or save more money? That generally it becomes problematic for the franchisees over time, especially after several of those decisions that happen in a row. So, anyway, I think that being franchisee focused truly Not just saying it but your actions to follow suit will make a big difference. Oh, it's huge.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 11:50

You know, when you talk about economics and they're just like you know it's not you, they don't want to focus on that, but I'm like that's happy. Franchisees that are making money is huge. Focusing on your existing franchisees is what's going to pull in the new franchisees, you know, and validation will Reinforce that. You know. If you're focused on your franchisees, you'll. You'll grow Absolutely. If you're too big, if you're just trying to get them off your plate and focus on the next one or, like you've said, companies that have taken and grown too fast and not paused to To focus on the franchisee and make sure they're all started and going good, and they you know they're gonna struggle because those people are gonna lack support. They're gonna lack what they need.

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 12:41

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And it's hard when you're a franchise or and growing and and you are all of a sudden you catch that lightning in a bottle and it's high growth. And I've had several clients that have had the Self-awareness to hit the pause button and they waited to add new franchisees. Or, if franchisees, if they signed up, they said, well, you can sign up, but your training will be delayed six months or eight months or a year. So just know that is the case before you sign up or come on board. We're okay, waiting because we want to make sure we can train and support you the right way.

Lance Hood (FranPro): 13:20

Absolutely Well, tom. I appreciate having you on today. You know I learned a lot. Thank you so much. If you want to Speak with Tom and have him help you with your business, you can go to https://Franpro. vip/GoBigSky. All right, thank you, tom. Any last words?

Tom Dufore (Big Sky Franchise Team): 13:44

No, just really appreciate it. Thank, thank you for the opportunity and I would just say anyone who's tuning in that May have a potential referral or someone that might have a potential challenge going on. We offer free consultations. There's no cost for anything until we both agree it's time that we should be doing business together. So we we'd encourage you to take advantage of that opportunity. All right, thank you. I.