Franchising Secrets Behind $60M+ Net Revenue, Growth Without Guesswork - Michael Ramsey

Charles Schwartz (0:00)

Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where we don't care what you think, only what you can prove. Less than half of all franchises ever reach 25 locations, and only 5% make it to 100

Michael Ramsey, co-founder of Strong Pilates, got there in seven years and now runs 120 locations in 15 countries. Today, he explains how to pick a franchise that last, and why AI could push a lot of people toward owning one. The show starts now. All right, welcome back to the show. Michael, man, I'm excited to have you on.

Michael Ramsey (0:29)

Mate, it's good to be here.

Charles Schwartz (0:31)

So I wanted to chit chat about the people, because a lot of people don't know who you are, they don't know what you've done. Give them a quick debrief. Who are you? What have you done?

Michael Ramsey (0:38)

Yeah, I think the most relevant thing here today, I own a franchise. I started seven years ago, co-founded it. Today, we have 120 locations in 15 countries. We do about 75 million per annum, and we're scaling quickly across the US. I think the most important thing in this conversation is that I'm a huge advocate for franchising. I opened my first franchise at the age of 26

I scaled that with my business partner, who's still my business partner today, 12 years. We scaled that to six franchises, and then we got the multiple, got the exit. And the reason I'm advocating for franchising so much is I remember, 26 years old, trying to climb the corporate ladder. I'm a marketer by trade. You know, I had no financial freedom. I had no, and I think that's what, you know, financial freedom just means time, right?

I had nothing of that degree, and I was sort of trying to drive further and further in my career, and I really wasn't getting anywhere. And what franchising did was give me the opportunity to finally hit my financial goals, get some time back, and actually like become really passionate about business. So this is why I like to have these conversations, because it's something that changed my life, and now I'm trying to do the same for other people.

Charles Schwartz (2:01)

One of the things you were talking about before we started recording is why franchising is going to be so big in the future, and a lot of that's because of AI. And I think what people don't understand is some huge things about AI that people don't understand. First off, AI does not stand for artificial intelligence. It stands for always incorrect, so get that out of the way right now. The second thing is that AI is to us, as the asteroid was to dinosaurs, it is going to completely wipe out employment, and it's going to be wild. But we've done this before.

This is during the industrial revolution, we had massive changes. During the tech boom, we had massive changes. When we went from being nomadic to agricultural-based, these are things that we've done a lot of time. However, I believe it's going to change the entire platform. We were talking about this offline. Could you speak to how you think AI is going to change the ballgame, and why franchising matters?

Michael Ramsey (2:48)

Yeah, I mean, there's already almost 9 million jobs in franchising in the US right now. You know, franchising accounts for about 3% of GDP in the US. And I think, and I'm already seeing this in my own business, where there are roles that you simply don't need a person to do anymore. And it's not that they're unskilled roles. These are very, very skilled roles in areas like legal marketing, you know, copywriting. There's a lot here that seems to be just getting swallowed up by AI.

I think, you know, not only are we seeing from a franchising perspective, jobs growing year on year and compounding, but I think what we're going to see is very intelligent, very well-educated people that are no longer going to have positions, and they're not going to be able to make similar income to what they're making. So this is where I see franchising coming into play.

You know, I think these people will have business experience, but they won't have experience in running a business. The best part about franchising is you are given all the tools. You know, you launch with a great franchise, you've got the brand equity there, so you've obviously got an existing client base that will come and see you. And very, very quickly, you can make money, you can scale that business, and you can do quite well. So I think, you know, in probably two, three, four years time, when jobs are being made redundant, people are going to look to franchising. And, you know, a good question to ask, I guess, I don't know if you have an opinion on this, Charles, but, you know, what do you think is the benefits of, you know, starting a franchise compared to, say, starting your own business, right? Because there's arguments for both, you know.