In Business for Yourself, Not by Yourself with Jon Ostenson

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work At Home Rockstar podcast. Today we are talking to the CEO of Fanbridge Consulting, and what he does is he helps people to understand the, the non-food franchising and to un- identify the top available opportunities on the market. So I’m super excited to be rocking out today with Jon Austinson.

Hey, Jon. You ready to rock?

Jon Ostenson: Hey, Tim, ready to rock. Excited to be here

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Well, we always start off on a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, you know, I’ve been fortunate to be able to build a business that allows me to do what I enjoy doing day in, day out, helping people, working from home, and, uh, yet, you know, been on the Inc. 5000 the last couple years. I’ve been able to build a sizable practice, and I do that by helping others. And so, uh, yeah, it’s incredibly fulfilling.

Um, I spent many years in the corporate world and always had that desire to be a business owner, didn’t know where to start, didn’t have franchising on my radar, and it was about 10 years ago that, uh, franchising landed on my radar. So look forward to unpacking that. Um, but yeah, I pinch myself every day.

Could never work for anybody again, and, uh, just feel very blessed to, to be able to serve others[00:01:00]

Tim Melanson: Yeah, you can’t go back, eh? It’s, it’s a tough thing

Jon Ostenson: Can’t come back. Unemployable, as they like to say within entrepreneurship circles. And what’s amazing is most of the folks I hang out with these days are business owners, right? It’s just a different conversation. It’s a different way of thinking and, uh, yeah, a different sense of freedom as well. And, and nothing’s easy.

If business ownership was easy, everyone would be doing it. So I never wanna sugarcoat it, but it does provide that path to the life that you’re looking to, um, that most people are looking to lead

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And I mean, there’s just more, I think there is more opportunities. It’s more under- well understood now too. Like, so I, I’ve just seen a massive difference in the last, you know, 15, 20 years that there’s just more and more people that are just choosing to do it themselves, right? Instead of just taking the job.

And then at the, at the same time, the job market is getting wonky. Is that a good word for it? Right?

Jon Ostenson: Well, all I know is I read the Wall Street Journal every day, and I see headlines around AI and workforce reductions or impacts and changes, and [00:02:00] I have so many people reaching out saying, "Hey, either my job’s gonna be impacted, or I’m afraid it’s gonna be impacted, or I’m being asked to do more with less, or I’m being asked to learn all these new technologies."

And they’re saying, "I want understandable cash flowing businesses, things that aren’t going out of style, that are not gonna be disrupted by AI." Um, those are con- the conversations we’re having frequently

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, I think the days of just, um, uh, relying on, you know, one employer for the rest of your life, I mean, those have been gone for years now, right? But I mean, I think it takes time for the mindset to just change about that and, and recognize that, you know, the, the safe job is, is, is a thing of the past now, and it’s a little bit…

You know, for people like me and probably you, it’s empowering. I, I, I think having, like, control is, is what I wanted in the first place. It’s why I’m, I’m self-employed in the first place, is to have that control. But, um, but it is scary, like, as you said, and there are a lot of pitfalls that you could fall into, and we do like to talk about some of the mistakes, so I’m wondering, can [00:03:00] you share with me a bad note?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah. Well, I once had a company that did not succeed. Um, when I left the corporate world, you know, I, I did start a company. It was a marketing agency and a call center all under one roof, and we served franchises and franchisees. And, and candidly, we became too customized and ended up not having the best processes, and we were kind of learning on the fly as we went.

Had a lot of fun during the process. We built it up. We were about thirty-five employees. Uh, I had a partner on the business with me and, um, you know, was very proud of it. But end of the day, it wasn’t profitable. We were barely break even, and we were putting a ton of effort into it. So I saw the writing on the wall.

I kicked the can down the road for a little while, but eventually I had to pull the trigger on, uh, on the business. And, uh, you know, that was a humbling experience, right? You know, didn’t have a big, sexy exit. Instead, it was really stepping back and, you know, finding homes for our employees, finding homes for our clients.

Very proud of how we handled it, but it was a difficult situation. It was a tough season to be in. But that experience gave me all the more appreciation for the franchise model because here I’m trying to build something on the fly, whereas [00:04:00] with the franchises, you’ve got a proven operating system. You know, it’s been proven out in other markets.

You’ve got a sea of other franchise owners living the same thing day in, day in, day out. There’s just so many benefits to being in business for yourself but not by yourself, and it de-risked the situation a lot. So, um, it was a negative at the moment, but it led to a much more positive, uh, kind of long-term tr-trajectory

Tim Melanson: Wow. So to customize, I’d like to dig into that a little bit ’cause, uh, I’ve definitely, I think I know what you mean by that, right? Well, but what do you mean by that?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, to build a business, you’ve got to have margin, right? And oftentimes you can get that through streamlining and efficiencies, right? Uh, you’ve got to have… But what, where we became too custom was we were doing something a little different for each of our clients, even within a franchise system where we should have been treating them all fairly equal.

Um, you know, answering their phone calls, how we answer those calls, how we customize the marketing in their area. Whereas if we’d kind of stuck to the script, we would have been a lot more efficient. Our clients probably would have been better because they’re not the subject matter experts on all this feedback they were giving us.

[00:05:00] Um, a- and so yeah, big lesson learned that, you know, e- e- either you’ve got to be willing to charge for becoming very custom can’t have a low price and be custom, um, or spread yourself too thin and not have the resources to fulfill the business

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think that can apply to so many businesses, especially service businesses. And it’s tough because, you know, in the very beginning when you’re, you know, looking for those initial clients, you, you sort of take anything you can get, right? Um, but I think what probably we should be doing in those circumstances is learning which clients we’re best at serving, and then try to figure out how to, like, package up that product or that service into something that is really, um, predictable, right?

Jon Ostenson: 100%. No, even if you have like a service-based business, let’s say it’s truck-based, you know, you wanna keep those routes tight. Well, or else there’s gonna be inefficiencies. Uh, well, therefore, you wanna market in a couple of zip codes instead of spreading [00:06:00] yourself too thin at the beginning, right? And so, uh, a lot of lessons learned, but those are lessons I’m able to pass on to our clients today

Tim Melanson: Well, and speaking of which, so how did you learn all this stuff? Like, do you hire coaches? Like, how, how did you get into those, or did you already know, right? H- how did you get there?

Jon Ostenson: Well, again, I spent many years in the corporate world, so there are definitely skill sets that I brought over. However, I, I never learned how to be an entrepreneur until I was an entrepreneur. And, uh, some of the resources that really helped me, I have had several business coaches over the years, Jack Daly being one.

He’s a pretty well-known guy out there. Paid a lot for him, but it was worth it. Um, you know, so I learned from experts, but also learned from peers, and I’d say that was a huge im- part of my growth in learning how to be an entrepreneur. Uh, one organization as an example, EO, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

It’s a big global organization. Here in Atlanta where I am, we have about 175 members. You have to do at least a million a year in revenue, and then they’ve got kind of a JV program, 250,000, I think is the threshold there. But, you know, we were in forums where every month I’d meet with [00:07:00] seven others, and we would go deep in our businesses and kind of serve as a board of directors.

I learned so much from these other folks that were in different industries, different backgrounds. Um, and part of it was entrepreneurship 101. So that really helped me on my journey to not have to make every mistake myself, though I did make plenty of mistakes. Um, you know, and I tell my kids this all the time, "It’s okay to make mistakes.

Let’s just try not to make the same obvious mistake twice."

Tim Melanson: Hmm. Yeah. Well, I think the, the, I mean, the, the analogy or the joke that I say all the time is that when we start our business, oftentimes we start because we’re, you know, we’re good at this thing, right? But then we find out really quickly that probably 80% of running the business has nothing to do with that thing, right?

It’s all the other stuff. And so I, I like what you’re saying because, you know, if you go and you meet other entrepreneurs, even if they’re in a totally different industry, there is a lot of overlap, maybe even 80% overlap of things that they’re dealing with as well. It’s just that specific service or a product that they offer that’s different.

But other than that, the, the principles of running a [00:08:00] business tend to be very similar, right?

Jon Ostenson: They are. And I think you have to be wise in saying, what do you wanna take from others and what do you want to leave behind? You know, where I live, most of the people I sur- surround myself with are business owners that are building very large businesses that are gonna have big exits on one day, and that’s kinda what you’re taught, right?

You add head count, scale up, you know, make it as big as you can. For me, with my consulting practice, I have purs- purposefully chosen to keep it at a certain size because I don’t wanna add the head count. I’ve been there. I’ve had a 35-person company before. And right now, I challenge myself to find efficiencies, find better ways of doing things so I can serve more clients without having, adding head, head count on my end, because my desire is to be customer/client-focused.

You know, I wanna be strategic. I don’t wanna manage a large team. So it’s neat when you reach that point in your career when you say, "Hey, here’s what I’m good at. Here’s what I enjoy doing. Here’s what, what I want my every day to look like."

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I think that that’s a probably like a, a cultural or maybe like [00:09:00] a, you know, programming that your business always has to grow. It has to keep growing. Every year it has to keep going, right? And that’s not necessarily true. You can kind of keep it at a size for a long time and still be happy, right?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah. For me, the business cash flows well. I’ve got the consulting business, then I’ve got an investment business, and on the investment side, that’s where I get a… You know, as I’m able to fuel the cash flow into the investments, you know, whether it be real estate, whether it be franchises that I invest in, um, whether it be private credit, private equity, a lot of different asset classes that I invest in, that creates the passive cash flow, right?

So that, that’s expanding. So that’s where I’m getting the growth rather than headcount directly to the bottom line in my consulting practice

Tim Melanson: I have the same strategy. And i- it’s, it’s taken so long to get to that point , right? Where, where, uh, you know, and, and, uh, I think that, um, you know, the, the, the really wealthy employees even, that- they’re- that’s how they do it, right? They use their main income, even though their main income might not be expanding and tripling every year, it’s staying [00:10:00] pretty stable, but they’re taking that and using that money, you know, instead of spending it on, you know anything.

They’ll use that money wisely and, and, uh, a business owner can do the same thing, only the difference is that there’s a lot more flexibility in running a business, but also a lot more risks, too, right?

Jon Ostenson: There is, though I, I would argue that working for someone else is risky, kind of like we talked about in the

Tim Melanson: It is

Jon Ostenson: here. I- it is. And so, now, we have a lot of people reach out to us, probably half of our clients get into businesses where they still have a W-2 or they’re a current business owner of another company and they’re saying, "I wanna diversify.

I want to expand. I want the tax benefits that come through business ownership," right? The government incentivizes people to be business owners. It just opens up the tax playbook. And they want their efforts to not only go towards cash flow, but they wanna build an asset that they can sell one day. So I, I give a talk oftentimes called Franchising as an Asset Class, and so we, as we think about the different things you can invest in, business ownership is one of those, and I believe that franchising makes it much more doable and de-risk the situation in a lot of [00:11:00] cases for people

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So now let’s get into a little bit of the practice side of it, ’cause, uh, I mean, that can mean a lot of different things, right? Um, you know, there’s business practices. There’s also personal practices I imagine too. Like, do you have any of those?

Jon Ostenson: Any personal practices, I’m sorry

Tim Melanson: Things that you do every day, routines, things that make your life s- consistent, we’ll say

Jon Ostenson: Absolutely. No, I, I view everything through five domains, five lenses, if you will. And this is my annual goal setting, my quarterly goal setting, even how I evaluate my day. I call it the five F framework. For me, it’s, it’s faith, family, and friendships, um, fitness, finances, and then, uh, uh, franchising. So for some people that’d be business, for me it’s franchising.

So those five Fs, I mean, that’s how I think about my day. Was I balanced today? Did I move the ball forward? What categories do I need to get more focus on that I didn’t move the ball forward in today? Um, so that’s the framework that I operate through. And as I go about my day, [00:12:00] you know, trying to hit those, you know, working out with a trainer.

I was with a trainer this morning and, um, you know, we’ll do some recovery later today. Fitness is incredibly important to me. You know, starting my day on the faith side. Um, you know, making sure I carve out good family time. You know, and then I’m in a place now where the franchising, it’s not a 40-hour workweek, right?

It, it is less and, um, you know, but there are times that I push really hard. There are times I’m in the office at 6:00 AM. There are other days that, you know, I take the day off. My family and I go on multiple international trips every year. There are things that you can do as a business owner, um, that you might not be able to do as a W2.

I don’t have to ask anyone for permission to do that.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, exactly. Man, that’s a lot of, uh, positive Fs

Jon Ostenson: That’s right. And, and I oftentimes joke that w- when I say the F word franchise, people think of fast food like Subway, McDonald’s, but, uh, you know, there’s so many categories

Tim Melanson: Yeah, there’s a lot of different types of franchises. It’s not just the fast food ones, and I think that, um, I think that that might be what people think of when they think of a [00:13:00] franchise. They only think of franchi- of, uh, fast food franchises, but there’s a lot, right?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, and we’re seeing… We’ve got nothing against the food guys. We need them, but there’s a reason why I wrote the book Non-Food Franchising, which I’m happy to share with all of your listeners. There’s so many industries that you don’t have on your bingo card when you hear the word franchise. You know, things like home and property services, you know, health and wellness, categories like seniors, which is a huge one today, or, or kids, pets, different B2B type services.

And we can te- definitely take it down a level. I’m happy to give examples behind each of these. Um, but 90% of those that we work with, Tim, when they come to us and say, "Hey, we wanna be a business owner, or we don’t know where to start. We understand franchising a little bit, but we don’t know what industry to go into," I expose them to the top dozen or so opportunities in their market, hitting on different categories.

90% of the time, they end up in an industry that was never even on their radar, so it’s so much fun to expose them to what’s out there

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I mean, uh, I, I think that one of the other things that you get from these [00:14:00] franchise models is just the mentorship and, and, and the, the systems that have been worked before. So it might even be a really good way to, like, bridge the gap between being an employee and being an entrepreneur. Maybe it’s like a stepping stone to doing something that maybe you’ve always wanted to do, right?

Jon Ostenson: I think that’s very well said. I oftentimes joke that training wheels are, you know, resemble franchises, um, in that you’re in business for yourself but not by yourself, to be cliche. You do have that franchisor and their team supporting you or that operator that you put in place. That’s why that semi-passive, I like to call it semi-involved model, is doable.

You have to have a good operator, but they can be supported by the franchisor. So now you’ve got that side, but you also, oftentimes this gets overlooked, you’ve got all these other franchise owners all across North America that are living the same thing day in, day out as you. You’re learning from each other, exchanging best practices.

Um, and so you have this community or mastermind, if you will, um, th- that’s incredibly valuable

Tim Melanson: Okay. What about the, uh, the cash flow of the [00:15:00] business? How do we… ‘Cause I, I, I understand that, you know, some of these franchises may cost a fair bit of money as well. How do you make sure that you’re gonna make your money back?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, absolutely. So every franchise you go into, uh, they’ve got what’s called an FDD, a franchise disclosure document. That’s got the historical financial results. So nothing’s ever a given, right? But at least you have some really good actual data that you’re able to utilize when you build out your pro forma and think about the business.

Uh, your item seven’s where it shows your all-in investment range. Your item nineteen is your, you know, potential, uh, revenue and profit based on others. You also get to talk to other franchisees before you ever buy, so you can hear about their experience and their numbers. Um, so no, you know, you want to plan wisely.

You know, if you’re going to use a loan like an SBA loan, it’s very common to use to purchase the franchise. You know, you need to factor in that debt service into your expense categories. You know, there are franchises where you can be profitable day one, literally, because you have low overhead and the marketing’s been turned on.

There are others, you know, that may take a little bit longer. I’d say on average, you’re probably looking at around six months, six to nine months. I always [00:16:00] encourage clients to, "Hey, let’s be a little more conservative. Let’s assume it takes a full year," right? But what does that run rate look like as you build up to that year?

Um, a-and so, you know, we encourage clients to go in conservatively, have that extra cash or that line of credit that you can tap into. Um, you know, partnerships are incredibly common as well, where maybe someone’s a capital partner, someone’s an operating partner. Um, but a lot of different ways to fund it.

Another way is a retirement rollover. It’s what’s called the ROBS program. A lot of people aren’t aware of that, but that’s a common way to fund a purchase

Tim Melanson: Wow. Now, I, I mean, I, I have, I have a lot of people on the podcast that have different, uh, you know, aspects of the bad note of things that don’t go as planned. But there tends to be some common mistakes that people will make, and, um, a- I’m thinking in the franchise model or versus, like, a, a regular traditional business.

Like, if someone’s thinking about starting a business, a lot of times we’re thinking about it from the perspective of we wanna do it our own way. You know, we wanna, we wanna have our own, our own thing, right? And we don’t wanna [00:17:00] be following r- uh, rules anymore from some employer. But the franchise model, on the other hand, you do have to follow these rules in order to be successful.

Now, do you find that there’s a lot of, like, resistance to following the, the, the, you know, the proven rules that are obviously working for other people?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, it’s a good point. Not everyone’s meant to be a franchisee, right? There are some people that are too entrepreneurial, I might say. You know, they wanna put their thumbprints all over everything, right? And, and they would not be good franchise owners. I do believe it’s a better model of business ownership for most people out there, again, because you have that training wheels, you’ve got the system, you’ve got the product market fit that’s been established.

I can go on and on. You know, technology stack day one, the marketing optimized data day one. Uh, I’ll stop there. But no, what I found is there are individuals that… It, it usually gets… comes out during the discovery process, and I have to tell them, "Hey, I don’t think fra-" or they come to the conclusion on their own franchising may not be right for them.

Tim Melanson: Right

Jon Ostenson: What’s interesting, Tim, a lot of existing bu- business owners come to us and wanna buy a franchise. [00:18:00] Some of them, it’s not a good fit. A lot of them, it’s a really good fit because they say, "I appreciate all the hard work that’s gone in because I’ve been there myself before. I’d rather not recreate the wheel.

I’m ready to just go execute. I’ve got this young employee I wanna put in place, let him go run with it and make us proud." Um, you know, a couple of years back, I had… It was a gutter franchise, about a six billion dollar industry, gutter installation. Placed nine clients with that franchise system. It was, uh, great financials, great model.

One of them went out of business, whereas others were thriving. Some even did a million dollars in their very first year in revenue. One of them went out of business. I called the franchisor. I said, "What happened here?" He said, "John, he wasn’t willing to follow the system. We did everything we could. We coached him.

We flew into his territory. Um, end of the day, he thought he was the smartest guy in the room and just wasn’t willing to follow the system." And so, you know, I think back, I was president of a large national franchise system or international with candles, uh, in the US, Shelf Genie. In that franchise system, our top performers were the [00:19:00] ones that were halfway decent with people, they worked hard, and they were willing to follow the system.

So it does take some humility, um, but that was a great question.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and I, I think that, you know, it is possible that someone could have a better idea, right? I mean, that does exist. Someone created it in the first place. But on the other

Jon Ostenson: totally. Yeah. No, and innovation bubbles up from the franchisees usually

Tim Melanson: Right. Uh, well, and there you go. I was just gonna say that, ’cause I imagine there’s probably a path where you can sort of, like, maybe share that idea and maybe get some improvements in the fin- in, in the way that the franchise r- runs, right?

Jon Ostenson: Oh, 100%. Franchisees are always gonna share their opinions and, uh, you know, but oftentimes that’s where the best ideas come from, ’cause they’re living it day in, day out on the front lines. Um, yeah, I, I mean, I could rattle off examples that they come to mind, but yeah, a good franchisor is going to take that feedback.

They’re going to want to innovate. If it works for this franchisee, hey, let’s roll it out to the whole system and, and institutionalize it. So, um, no, that is a benefit that you have of being a part of a franchise system is that other people are [00:20:00] trying different things. You know, they’re not taking the brand off the rails, you can’t do that, but they can try different things in their hiring or their marketing or what have you

Tim Melanson: Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, and, and I, I, I do think that that’s probably true a lot that when you build the business and you realize what’s involved in it, then you realize, "Okay, th- this is the reason why they do things this certain way." And I think, uh, that oftentimes what you might encounter is, you know, especially when if you’ve been working a job for a long time, you’re just like, "Oh, I just hate the way that they have to do that," right?

And you just wanna do it a different way. But oftentimes there’s a reason why they do it in the first place, right? And sometimes there’s not. Sometimes it is just extra work for no reason. But it’s probably pretty rare, ’cause even in these large, large companies that you’re an employee of, I mean, they’ve got these systems in place for a reason, right?

It’s, it’s usually not random, right?

Jon Ostenson: Uh, when you talk about big companies, I mean, s- uh, sometimes there’s a rhyme or reason, sometimes there’s not, right? So I’m having ghosts from my past all of a sudden [00:21:00] flood my mind with, uh, why did we do this back in the day? But, um, no, I, I’d say within franchising, there’s a healthy checks and balance, right?

I- if the franchisor is saying, "Hey, we wanna do things this way," and fran- multiple franchisees are saying, "No, you’re better off another way," they’re gonna speak their minds

Tim Melanson: Well, and, uh, you know what? Uh, you know, on that topic, and I’m just thinking that it might be possible that the company is so big and there’s so many people that, you know, based on the system that you’re talking about, you’re trying to kind of systemize everything, put everything in the same little box.

Well, now you’ve got too many different people fitting in a little box, right? So it may not be the right thing to do, but it is if the company is that big, which is probably a, a, you know, a good selling point for, you know, maybe keeping a business a, a little bit smaller. Because the smaller you are, the leaner you can be, the more maybe custom, I guess, you can be.

Does that make sense?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, and everyone’s got a different end goal, right? I- and their why behind why they’re doing what they’re doing. I mean, I’ve got clients… Uh, I’ve got one that does close to 50 million a year in revenue. Over time, he’s acquired other franchisees in the [00:22:00] system, built up this large empire. I’ve got others that say, "Hey, I’m happy with the lifestyle business where I can, you know, work remotely and, um, you know, work from the beach, and work the days I want to and not the other days," you know, different con- consulting type gigs, uh, within franchising.

Um, I’ve got others that say, "Hey, I wanna have a large team and nurture them and build a culture." Others say, "Hey, I’d rather be a one-man show." A- and so there’s something just about for everyone, and it’s so much fun to kind of pull the, um, pull the curtain back and expose people to the types of businesses.

And I’ll just rattle off a few, Tim, uh, just off the top of my head here. So this is what gets people leaning in. You know, so home and property services, it’s everything from, you know, restoration to dumpsters, to artificial turf, to pool cleaning, to cabinets. Um, you know, businesses in health and wellness like hormone replacement, recovery modalities.

Uh, you know, in the senior world, you know, in-home care, but also businesses that provide wheelchair ramps and stair lifts and r- retrofitting mobility solutions, allowing people to age in place. Um, you know, i- in the kids space, it’s [00:23:00] everything from youth soccer to teen driving schools to, you know, you’ve got pet grooming out there, um, pet boarding.

And then in the B2B services, it’s different types of consulting like cost reduction consulting or insurance adjusting or freight brokerage or really cool one that we’re working with right now, it’s a big fuel truck. It can carry 200 gallons of, uh, uh, fuel and go around and gas up fleets of vehicles to reduce the downtime that those companies have.

It’s… Some of the ones I’m invested in, I’ve got an asphalt paving and line striping business, so parking lots. I’ve got another one that provides temporary containment walls around renovation projects. So again, things when I say franchise that you would never think of, right?

Tim Melanson: Wow. Well, yeah, there’s something for everybody, and when you start a business, if you get really good at creating those systems, you can franchise it. Is, is that, like, is that a thing too? Like, uh, you know, when you… I- if you have a successful business, can you turn that into a franchise?

Jon Ostenson: Very oftentimes. I mean, there are some that aren’t replicable for whatever reason, but many times it’s a path that I consider founders to [00:24:00] consider, right? It could be a good growth opportunity where you have vested interest. You know, people are putting their own money in the game, they’re gonna run the business like they own it, right?

You always want employees to run it like they own it. Um, so no, I’ve got some great partners that take companies through that process. I’m always happy to chat with any, any of them and give them some feedback and some thoughts on, you know, whether or not I think their business would make sense to franchise.

But no, it can definitely be a good path to scale, and private equity loves, loves, loves the franchise model. So, you know, when you think about an exit one day, um, it could be a great model

Tim Melanson: Okay. So there’s exiting from your franchise, and there’s also exiting from your regular business that you could turn into a franchise.

Jon Ostenson: Exactly. Exactly

Tim Melanson: cool. So let’s, uh, I mean, let’s get into that a little bit more. We can get right into your guest solo. So what’s exciting in your business right now?

Jon Ostenson: Gosh, there’s so many unique business models that are coming down the chute, and I mean, we’re seeing more interest than we’ve ever seen in franchising, I think for a variety of reasons. You know, I think shows like yours, you know, it’s getting people excited about the idea, and, you know, we’re helping them connect the dots.

[00:25:00] And, you know, Tim, what’s neat about our model, it’s entirely free to work with us. You know, I’m essentially a real estate broker, but for franchises, and so we simply get referral fees on the back end. None of those are passed on to our clients, and, you know, we, we’re part of the largest group out there. We work with over 600 different franchise brands, um, uh, that are looking to expand, and, um, I just love exposing people to these.

So I’m having a lot of fun, um, love educating, love taking clients through the process. I get my validation when they come back to me and they buy additional brands or additional locations, or they refer their brother to me. Um, that’s what really gets me going and, um, excited about the franchises that I own and the ones that I’m helping other clients step into

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s, that’s awesome. So now when… How does the process look like when I, I, if I wanna work with you then?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah. Reach out to us. Come to franbridgeconsulting.com, F-R-A-N bridgeconsulting.com. Share your email address. Uh, you’ll immediately be able to download our book, Non-Food Franchising. Uh, but then my assistant will reach out to you once she gets your [00:26:00] email, and I give you a link to my calendar. So, you know, if you’d like to take the next step and jump on a call, you’ll be happy to, you know, talk through franchising with you and, and through…

talk about your background and what could be a fit. And then, uh, I’d come back to you and expose you to, you know, the top opportunities that I see in your market for you. And, um, you know, from there, you know, talk to the franchisors that you want to. We kind of support you throughout the journey and, um, you know, ultimately, if you move forward, you know, we’ll, we’ll celebrate with you.

But, you know, we’ve got all the funding resources. We have franchise attorneys that can review the agreements. Uh, we’ve got, um, kind of a one-stop shop for those interested in franchising

Tim Melanson: Wow. Is there a type of person or maybe a type of background that tends to get really good success in, in, in this?

Jon Ostenson: I think someone, you know, that has that humility, that’s willing to follow the system. You know, i- we love military veterans. They, uh, you know, they’ve been following systems. It’s all about executing, right? Um, you know, I, I love… I mean, so many… That’s one of the things that made me fall in love with the franchise model is just the diversity of backgrounds that can come together under a shared system of [00:27:00] support and, you know, fulfill their dreams to become business owners.

And, you know, I always say, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? I ne- I get excited about this. I never wanna sugarcoat it. It still takes work. There’s a reason why the government incentivizes you in the tax code. There’s a reason why not everyone’s doing it, but franchising makes it much more doable and, um, you know, you get to work for yourself instead of someone else.

So, um, you know, I’d say those that have a willingness to work hard, that are, um, you know, halfway decent with people and willing to follow a system, that’s all it takes. And b-

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, no matter what happens, you gotta go to work . And that’s, you know, not necessarily easy for anybody. So, you know, what, what’s the difference, right? You’re gonna struggle either way you go, so why not have a little bit more, uh, freedom in the path that you wanna take, right? And then on the other hand, I mean, as you said, you know, in the franchise model, and, you know, technically even in, in entrepreneurship in general, there’s so many [00:28:00] people out there that wanna help, right?

And so there, y- you know, if you’ve got that humility and you’ve got that ability to wanna, like, listen and follow some instruction, then you can get some really great success, you know, taking your own path, right?

Jon Ostenson: And I encourage people to think about what’s right for the next season. Whatever you do next probably won’t be the only thing you ever do. If you get into a franchise, you can still start a business, you can still buy an existing business. You– But you’re also gonna get a chance maybe to buy other franchisees over time when they look to sell within that system.

You get first look at all of those, right? So that internal M&A could be another path to scale. You can come back to me, and I’ll introduce you to other franchises, right? You can always scale up with complementary or diversifying, uh, franchises. So, uh, y- you have a lot of optionality. And what I love about franchising, it allows you to get in the game.

You know, too many people are sitting on the sidelines today talking about business ownership, and maybe they’re having calls with some existing business owners. They’re consuming a lot of content. Franchising allows you to actually get in the game, start building, get that platform that gives you the [00:29:00] optionality to expand in different directions in the future

Tim Melanson: Love that. So how do we find out more?

Jon Ostenson: Yeah, come out to our website, friendbridgeconsulting.com.

Uh, you know, immediately you’ll get a copy of our book and a downloadable copy. If you’d rather buy it on Amazon, all the proceeds go to Hope International, a great nonprofit that we support. Uh, but no, when you share your email address, again, my assistant will reach out, uh, with a link to my calendar, and, uh, would love to serve any of your, uh, listeners

Tim Melanson: Awesome. John, let’s get into music a little bit. Who is your favorite rock star or band?

Jon Ostenson: Uh, Bon Jovi

Tim Melanson: Ah, nice. Livin’ on a Prayer.

Jon Ostenson: Live and entrepreneur. That’s exactly right

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Have you ever seen them in concert?

Jon Ostenson: Have not seen them in concert, no. Um, you know, I, I probably attended a lot more sporting events than concerts over the years, but I do have an appreciation for music

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. Right on. Well, thank you so much, John, for rocking out with me today. This has been a lot of fun

Jon Ostenson: Hey, appreciate you having me. Thanks, Tim

Tim Melanson: No problem. To the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast