Franchise Expert: "I Got Laid Off, Bought ONE Franchise And Became Financially Free" | Ep. 448 with Gregory Mohr Founder of Franchise Maven

Gregory Mohr (0:00)

Going to the office, collecting that paycheck, the companies give you to help you forget your dreams.

Daniel (0:04)

At 16, Greg Mohr worked at Taco Bell. Decades later, corporate laid him off, so he used his 401k to buy one single franchise, one territory, and never needed a paycheck again. Since then, 3,000 people have come to him for help. He turned away 2,700 of them.

Gregory Mohr (0:23)

Don't be like me and buy a job. That's basically what I did.

Daniel (0:26)

What's the number one reason that you see that these franchisees fail?

Gregory Mohr (0:30)

Not following the system or the processes. I had one lady who took over the Las Vegas Valley. She was the vice president in the gaming industry. She told them...

Daniel (0:44)

I learned that you achieved financial freedom, financial independence by owning one franchise. I would imagine most people think you need dozens.

What is the truth about how much someone can make by owning a franchise?

Gregory Mohr (0:59)

Pretty much, Dan, the sky's the limit on that one. To some extent, there, it's really a matter of how much time, how much effort you put into that franchise or hiring a manager to put in that effort and time for you. But you're still putting in time and effort. You can own one and you can... I did it with one in one territory.

It's probably a little bit quicker to do with one franchise in multiple territories, but entirely possible.

Daniel (1:24)

When you're looking at what franchise to go with, how does somebody know where to put their money and time?

Gregory Mohr (1:30)

What you're going to be looking at there, Dan, that's one of the things that we go over together when I work with my people, is really, which is your background? What do you bring to the table? What is your skill set?

Really, what skill set do you like to use on a daily basis that does not feel like you're working?

What you need to look at from that franchise is what skill set does that franchise require? This way, you're utilizing what you like to do best, what makes it enjoyable for you. Also, look at the culture on that, and you get together with the franchise development people, and you talk with many franchisees along the way, so get a good feel for what the culture is like with that franchise, making certain that you're comfortable with it. Then there's some other little things along the way too. Well, maybe not so little things along the way. Really, can you afford it? Pretty much the franchise, they're going to tell you, if you can't afford it, then they're not going to talk to you. But you want to make certain that you have the money to invest. They usually have a minimum net worth on there, so you make sure your net worth is to make sure you have the money to get that franchise up and running. So you need to look at that runway on that. And talking to many different franchises, you'll get a good franchisees, you'll get a good feel for that. It's really though challenging when you first start out yourself, same with I did when I first started looking at franchises to figure out which franchise is right for you because there's 4,000 franchises out there.

So it can be a challenge going through there. I did that when I first started. I had about 20 different franchise development people calling me, telling me their thing was the greatest thing since sliced bread. And I'm like, which one do I choose? So you can do it yourself. You just have to do a lot of research and keep checking them, see who's got the territory available. As a franchise consultant working with 400 different franchises, I can really help narrow that field down. But if you're do-it-yourself or you want to do it yourself, then those are the things to look for is what skill set are they looking for? What are you doing on a daily basis? You're out there knocking on doors or franchise have people come to you. And when they need it, you can work with them. Many, many different things to look at. But really, your skill set and what you like using on a regular basis is really what's going to make a difference on that, because it won't feel like work then, it'll be fine.

Daniel (3:46)

So do you suggest that people look at doing a territory where they're committing to a group or owning that territory where they get people to then franchise within or should they start at just one location?