The Most Overlooked Way to Get Rich in America - Ep. #326

Chris Koerner (0:00)

How are people out there buying franchises with none of their own money?

Alex Smereczniak (0:03)

Franchising has 85-ish percent success rate. It's 50% for independent businesses. I think franchising is probably the most overlooked path to wealth creation in America.

Chris Koerner (0:14)

What would you say is the cheapest franchise concept that you would put your own money into right now?

Alex Smereczniak (0:20)

He just couldn't figure out what he was good at. He makes multiple six figures now. He, again, didn't have formal training for this.

Chris Koerner (0:26)

When you're looking at a franchise document, what is a red flag that makes you run away every time? Is Subway the worst franchise deal in America? Defend your answer.

My friend Alex knows more about how to get wealthy from franchising than almost anyone on this planet. So today, I flew him here to Dallas, Texas, to ask him what franchises can I get into with a very low startup costs and a very high profit potential? What should we look out for in a franchise that appears to be legit, but is actually shady? Which franchises are fads? Which are the next big thing? What are some overlooked franchises that are making people millionaires? And specifically, what are the four best franchise opportunities in the world right now? Alex, you probably know more about high profit potential franchises that don't cost that much to start than almost anyone on the planet.

Alex Smereczniak (1:20)

True. I've read thousands of what are called FDDs, Franchise Disclosure Documents. So I see average investment range, average revenues, and today we've got some of the most interesting low cost but high revenue potential franchises you can get into.

Chris Koerner (1:34)

Okay. And that's why you flew here today. So we can break these down. I want to talk about franchises that are popular, that are growing in popularity, but they're not like Crumbl and it's just tired. There's no opportunity left, right? Franchises that don't cost a ton to start and that have proven profit potential, not just like Hopes and Dreams on a spreadsheet, but you can look at their publicly filed franchise disclosure documents and see provably that they're profitable and that there's a lot of promise left in them. We're still early on them. Cool?

Alex Smereczniak (2:03)

Let's do it.

Chris Koerner (2:04)

Okay. I have in my notes here, Freight brokerage franchise.

Alex Smereczniak (2:08)

Yep. So the first one I brought is a really interesting business. It's in the freight brokerage category, which essentially is you in an office, it could be at your house, it could be a small office where you're helping people want to move goods, pairing them with carriers that have trucks and logistics and routes, etc. Then you're making the spread on what that vendor is willing to pay to move their items and what the supplier is willing to charge for moving those items. So you make the difference. So it's really B2B sales. So it doesn't cost a lot to get into this, but some of these individuals are putting up really big numbers. Let me pull exactly what the average is. So the average franchisee in this business is doing over a million dollars a year in revenue.

And this is a mature UK and Europe based concept that's moving to the US for the first time. They're actually headquartered here in Dallas.

Chris Koerner (2:57)

Okay. So you say a million a year in revenue. That's not like an industry wide statistic. This is for this franchise or this brand specifically. Okay.

Alex Smereczniak (3:05)

Yep.

Chris Koerner (3:06)

So I'm flashing back to high school. It's been a good, you know, what is it, 22 years now. My best friend was Chase and his dad owned a freight brokerage company. And it was his dad's that he inherited from him Chase will inherit it from him. And I'll never forget this because I go to Chase house and was like, Oh, where'd you go on vacation? Salt Lake. Oh, I just shipped a load of onions from Atlanta to Salt Lake. Oh, where'd you go on your mission here? Oh, I just shipped a bunch of cabbage. Like that's what he did.

He would pick up the phone and say, Oh, you need this load moved. All right, I can do it for this much, this much. You can leave on that. And then he would just take a margin on that shipment. Is that accurate?

Alex Smereczniak (3:39)

It's exactly how it works.

Chris Koerner (3:41)

Okay. And then recently when Tesla announced their Tesla semi, I reached out to my friend Chase. I'm like, dude, what are you going to do, man? These trucks, they're going to drive themselves. And he's like, we're going to buy some. Like, we will own them. We won't need as many truck drivers. So this feels like a pretty AI-resistant industry.