Alright guys, so a lot of people access how do they make a podcast? I'm let you in on a secret on the easiest most productive way to start a podcast and get it up and running and that is the app called anchor is free. They have all kind of cool creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer. They will distribute your podcast for you to all of the major Outlets including spot.Why Apple Google many more and you can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership is everything you need to make a podcast in one simple easy place. So if you're interested in starting a podcast Go download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started. Let's do it. All right, guys, welcome back to ey oh episode 37 37 in the books. Yes. Yes. Oh before we start we have some very exciting news, you know that we are on tour right now. Yeah, we go into all of our major markets all over the country. So we started in La shout out to LA. We went to Brooklyn that's all and then we went to Atlanta. That was great. Now most recent stop with Houston the craziest of am also proud to use taxes for sure. So next up. We are headed to the windy city Side Town Chicago going on now we come in we come in. So yeah, it's not 26. We are coming very shortly 926 so go to our website go to events Tab and registers a free network meet and greet. Once again the purpose of the network and meet and greet is not a seminar. It's not a Workshop it is an opportunity for you to build with us but more importantly but what each other we gon bring the whole city out and yeah, you're gonna be able to network and Pitch it business ideas and Meet Your Real Estate partner all forms of business come. Yeah. It's really for you to network with people who live in the same place as you right there really is no platform for that so Network and when we leave you still have those connections, right? It's a Vibe. It's a whole is all entire body. But uh, okay. So yeah. Come out. We have a very exciting episode something. I'm actually exciting about I'm always excited about episode but this is something that I'm actually looking forward to because it is very rare we get somebody that's first of something or the the biggest says something this is this is exciting is good stuff. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. So we got kike wise and she is a legend in her own right because she is the let the Is female franchisor and America? All right. Well, don't let that go over your head like so if you don't know what a franchisor is a franchisor is a franchise owner by not a franchisee. This is what most people think about franchise business to think about a franchisee franchisee is to say okay Subway's is a chain I buy a subway now, I'm a franchisee Subway. I'm an owner but off of subway subway is the larger company, right? So the flip side of that coin is to be a franchisor. Is that pronounce the corrector out and that's when you actually own the subway. Yeah, and then people are coming under your umbrella and they're buying their franchises from you. You created the blueprint and now they're running blueprint. We people have been asking for franchise and he's like, okay we can get like a Subway or something like that, but we figured why not just get the apple sauce from the App Store. It shouldn't it is and go straight to the source. Yeah. How about all the middle bit? And you should too so so yes, so first and foremost, thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Yes, so I'll give a quick rundown. So yes Pika has a her own Studio. It's called the stretch Studio, which is different will talk about it's not yoga is not Pilates is something completely different and she started in New Jersey and it became massively successful. So when she was thinking about expanding she thought about you know different ways to expand and she settled on the idea of just opening different franchises and where she's at now is to have 12 franchises All Over America and the goal is to have 65 in a very short period of time. So, okay now we got that out the way. Yeah, so, can you give us the back story on how the studio how the stretch Studio got started? Yes. So thank you again. Basically, I I was going to go back to school to get a Masters or open up my own business because I had a young son at the time. So I took a pool with friends and family. Should I go back to school or should I open a business? And everyone said you'll fail don't open a business most businesses fail, you know day 3 5 whatever listen to this. So I was like great then that's the direction. I'm going in because nobody else they're all afraid to so I decided to go with that. So I took my last literally $500 and I rented a small room and I printed out some brochures and I just ran with the idea of stretching people. Can we talk about the $500? Sure? Yeah, because like it wasn't just 500 but this especially in our community like we get a tax return and the first thing we think is like what can we buy? What Tripoli going on off this you got? Your tax return was the $500? Yes, and you decide. The business right? This is the only chance I have Chris. Oh, yeah. I took it and I started the business from there one client at a time. I built my clientele and it slowly became a business before my eyes. I studied guerrilla marketing for the first year in business. I read several books on how to Market with no dollars creative ways to get clients and then it started working and I just grew my clientele. If so, where did you start up ever? So you have the $500 you have the idea for instruction? First of all, before we even how did so all right. What's your background as far as to stretch like people? How does that so so I just so I studied at Montclair State University as a dance major. So I was a professional dancer I dance in the city television film for years being an undergrad. We had to take several Anatomy courses that were extremely boring. But I took them anyway had to and so I took the knowledge that I gained as an undergrad to put towards this concept so it would be a real thing. So, okay, what makes okay. So what is your process is for stretching that's typical stretching. Yeah, passive stretching, right? So as a dancer, we all know that dancers are the most flexible people dancers use gravity to gain flexibility. So essentially I replaced gravity. With a stretch coach, which is the coach that you have that gives you the session. So it's based on the dancers approach to stretching the movements and the coach gently follows the breath pattern of the client to add the stretch the clients completely limp. They're not holding any muscle groups. So they the endorphins flow through the body differently. So it's a whole experience where the only Studio that follows this process and that's the biggest difference between yoga and pilates, right? That's when most Of being your and your muscles are engaged and yoga and pilates their disengage. When you come to our studio, most people never truly relax and let go not even in bed. Some of my clients tell me they sleep like this balled up and I'm like really okay. I just applaud you like I studied physical education and health science major. It's great to go through an enemy in to go to Advanced anatomy and to go through physics and still pursue. All right. Right Applause. Congratulations. It's a real thing as far as a lot of time people, especially men, especially if you lift weights and stuff like yet very inflexible that can lead to a lot of problems. Yeah, like I used to I used to play basketball and I went to prep school and that's the first time I got introduced a yoga. Okay, and it was one of the best things I ever did because so I was in a yoga class and I was like the only males like to males it was everybody else was like tennis players. I was in there Maria Sharapova. That's a different story but in any event for another time, yeah, but anything so, you know, it's kind of like a little weird. I'm like 18 years old and a yoga class, but I realized that once I started to really become more flexible. Everything became better people don't think people fully understand how the body works, but when you actually are more flexible, you can move better. You can write bad at your quicker you on your feet. You lose weight. Also, it's a whole it's all bad. Yes it is. So, all right, so you You still have the 500 and you have the background and and dancing and stretching and all that. So, what do you what's the first step that you take for the 500 you rent a room out or so I went on Craigslist is real great. When it great on Craigslist was you know a different Craigslist and I found someone renting a room. It was actually a real estate agent who wanted to share his space. So my rent was $300. Has he paid the other half or 200 and I took the rest of the money and I printed out brochures those brochures. I passed out in the street. I used to stand outside this piece and just pass out brochures like stretching Montclair and him right you you asked it is this I read this right so, you know, it's coming. Yes, because we're 80s babies, right and we grew up with this character. This green character called Gumby. Yes, and if I read that you had gone be character. Then an outside yeah with you I went on Amazon. I ordered a Gumby costume. All you with a gonna be no. Oh, I was never like yeah, I had to maintain some. All right, so I hired someone to wear the gum be costume and pass out brochures while stretching that's down the street. So I rats guerrilla marketing so sorry, so how quickly grow so as far as so when I sold my first package, I mean my money Back practice 500. No, it was I think it was like 650 at the time. Yeah, four of ten ten sessions. Okay. So in the beginning it took about a year to develop a baseline of clientele at the time. I had a part-time job. I was selling furniture and once I started making more than my paychecks, that's when I completely quit so it took about a year for that to happen. Alright y'all so we're on the road a lot without UIL toward staying in hotels and all types of Ambien be so we don't always have the best Sleep Quality and what it really comes down to is the mattress to have on and nothing compares to our Helix sleep matches that we have at our home. If you're not up on Helix reward yourself. 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That's Helix H, Elie X sleep.com Leisure for up to a hundred and twenty five dollars off. So alright. So at what point do you move out of the room? And at one point you had the studio, right? Yeah. So the real estate agent would not renew my lease because he said I was using the space too much. I guess he thought here's this crazy girl with an idea. I just want somebody to help me pay my rent, but I actually built a business out of it was a house. It was in a house. No, it wasn't an office. Okay, like an office suite and so I was forced to find another space. Okay. The next space was in the basement of a Turkish restaurant, which I thought was dope because it's bigger like I have my own space but in the summer, you would smell Curry and onions coming through the vents good workout, right but it was Paradise for me. So that's that's actually where I built the business into a six-figure business and the basement of a restaurant. So that's when I knew I was onto something. I mean this the health and wellness space is a trillion dollar business. I think your A 4.7 billion trillion not billion. It's trillion now trillion dollar business. Did you know that going into it? You just said I'm just doing something, but it was doing Follow Your Passion your passion about it. And so my passion was always people and making people feel good through conversation, you know just Vibes right? But my passion was never my passion was stretching, but my passion was never business. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur because I didn't want to fail I equate It feeling with entrepreneurship so I avoided it. But my son was the reason I got into it so that I could spend time with him and be there for his work life balance, right? So then I started to fall in love with it. So, all right, so didn't at what point you get to own studio. So after I bought the business in the basement of the restaurant rest, all right, and I saw people were still coming even though it smells like Curry. I knew that I could potentially gain more. Our clientele and cover the cost of a storefront. So I took another leap of faith and I rented the store for how much was just a farmer at the time. It was 2,400. My little off-topic Kurt is that courage is something that every everybody uses like the Jamaicans Indians or China. I'm getting hungry choice you make Okay. Yo me eat my Curry go you got he's not even though you told me code at all. You don't know. Yeah, the shot is it is a member of the family so he gets to play that the house. I'm a pescetarian and now I'm on my way to becoming vegan. Nice. Shall we put all animals down what? I don't judge. I don't judge. All right. Okay, so you have the studio and then business starts to just really take off for your that point, right? Yes, and then okay, so when you hit your stride, well at what point did you really start to hit your stride? I always like okay, this is this is something right. So after a few years I was able to get a New York Times article features Korea through Google don't one of the reporters found me online and decided to do a story. Do you say you had two seo seo you mastered that right? Yeah. Can you explain seo seo stands for search? Engine optimization. So you find keywords that you highlight you pay for so that your results show up fast on Google. So being that no one was looking for stretching at the time. I had to pay for words like Jim yoga massage, and so when people would look for that boot, we would pop up and they're like, oh, what's this? So that's kind of how we started to develop a following. How did you underline like, how much does that cost? It was $300 a month like a company a company Town Square interactive so that so that's really I really works SEO really but I've seen that before and people still do it. You still doing yeah it really I'll never say but yeah same price. So what what what? Yeah. I'm just thinking like what's the key to find words that it's not because obviously it's like very popular words. It's like, you know, probably a million people using that same word. Right, is it to find words that aren't really so that much or believe it or not. Most small business owners. Don't use SEO as a tool. So even though you may be looking using the word gem most gyms are not using it. So it will highlight in your area and being that we essentially started the assisted stretching Movement. We were able to build our SEO campaign for years before anyone else tried to start using it. So we're like on the top like oh you already had a race right head of the race, but anyone can still benefit from it. You just have to incorporate those words throughout your entire website. You'll still show up. This is where the marketing. Yeah, so, all right, so you have the studio testing business is booming. But then you have a fire right? Yes. All right the studio burns down and you have to go into the basement of a church. Yes, but that was a moment for you where you realize you know what this isn't about me, right? The gentleman that will send it next you don't know value. There is a gentleman standing next to me and as the footwell the Flames were gone as the smoke is subsiding. He's like, I just bought a 10 pack of stretching sessions and all he cared about was his investment. But at that because in my head, I was like it burnt down. I'm done. I'm just gonna you know, chill strawberry get me an entrepreneur. I'm done, you know moved to Hawaii do something else and at that moment I was like, Now I have clients and I have employees. I can't just shut down. So at that moment. I knew this was bigger than just me. So it motivated me on a different level and that's actually when the New York Times reached out to us when we were in the basement of the church. It's funny. How life happens. So don't stop you God's work. So don't all right so--okay so you told us off camera about a book that changed my life and then you fired yourself the best thing ever. There was fire. Yes. Yes. All right. What does that mean if I self and how did that help you see the bigger picture? So it's called the e-myth Revisited like the letter e and it teaches you how to fire yourself from the things that you do not enjoy doing in your business so that you can be the creative force behind it and not lose, you know your light essentially a lot of entrepreneurs get burnout because they try to do everything themselves and they're afraid to delegate because they don't trust people. So I basically read the book and I force myself to do everything that is said chapter by chapter and my business started making more money as I fired myself because I would be stretching people answering the phones opening the door all at the same time stretching people and I see an email comes in. I would love to open it, but I can't cuz I'm stretching some so I just did it and it worked but it had dual benefits right because as you I just self right and had to hire someone new you have to write down the task procedures. Exactly. You're the measure. This is what you should be. This is what you should do, right? This is what I did wrong term that helps you out because now when it's time to create your own franchise exactly about the business, it's already there. But everything you said with me just really resonates like you it's hard to it'll be hard for anybody to understand that they're not an entrepreneur but you don't trust people and not know you don't trust people in a bad way, but it feels like you this is your baby right? It's like you you know what you're doing and you man I stood it, right you think you mastered it and it's like you don't really fully feel that somebody else can fulfill that role because they're not you and then even if you it's going to take you a long time to kind of teach them so you don't really trust them in that process, right? But like you said, I mean the problem with that is that now you're trying to do every single thing yourself and it gets a point in time when you just can't it's too much for you and somebody said in my business early on I heard they said never do anything never do. Anything that you can pay somebody else to do it exactly because there's only a disaster some things that you can only do right but absent everything else can be delegated. Absolutely. Right? So it's like even with us growing as a podcast. That's something that we even have to put in place as far as like we are we do this as far as like interviews and stuff like that but a lot of the other stuff we don't we shouldn't be doing right and we shouldn't be editing videos like that stuff that we can do some minor and smiles can do right. But as I said, that's true for any One or so, but I think the biggest step that stop people from doing that is to financial obligation also because it's like okay and so leap of faith because now it's to say it's bad enough to be entrepreneurial and have money coming might not come in. Yeah. So for now you gotta pay somebody else now, you definitely got to have money because you can't tell them I had a bad week. You can compare what point financially did you like? Okay, I have enough money I can do this or was that a leap of faith for you also. The leap of faith for the first month. I took it a lot less and I was hurt maybe even two months hear it in your voice. So here the pain but you have to go through that until you figure it out. And then once I figured out, okay, this is how much I need to make to cover myself so I can have my knee and one of the other things I did was I always had my cellphone payroll a lot of people start off with not paying themselves and Just paying everybody else, but I need I still needed a job. So putting yourself on payroll and seeing exactly how much you have to make. So I always set goals for the employees like this is the goal. We have to hit which included, you know, my individual goal yourself. We're not playing that game. That's right, and it just works. Its you gotta start slow. So if you hire someone for one day a week, like that's good. You just start slow until you trust the process. All right, so, all right, so we got the backstory. So now we're going to go into what I really me personally. I want to hear is the why and how you built the the franchise business and all the details in and out stuff like that Ernest you currently paying off student loan debt interested in improving your financial literacy or looking for new ways to earn income in today's ever-changing digital landscape. Well on The Talk, Of money with the mesh lakhani podcast mesh will follow Paper Trails chat with experts break down complex ideas and bring Clarity to the mystical Financial phenomenon. Each episode will be filled with compelling stories covering a broad range of subjects from buying Bitcoin dealing with student loan debt and everything in between. So listen to talk money with mesh lakhani on Spotify or whatever you listen to your favorite podcast and learn how to spend invest in learn in today's economy. All right. Now we're going to talk about how you built the business as far as to scale it to the next level because okay you haven't it's one thing to have a successful business. Right? But it's another thing to actually open a franchise operation. And and I guess that's hard to do. That's why you're the youngest one in the country youngest people on the beach. All right. Okay. It's not hard to do. It's hard to figure out if you don't have any guidance with the other day. Obviously, we've never I've never met anybody that own their own franchise. So like yeah like and was like, what was the guy that like well, what was the mentor the moment that you said? This is what I have to do now. So there I was really frustrated one day. I don't remember what was frustrating me but I went to Barnes and Nobles and I googled the top five franchise Consulting for firms and I called all five to see who it called me back first because at that point I was like, I don't want to open multiple locations. Well, can you talk about that, you know? So I actually actually a question like what made you say Okay, instead of opening. I want to shop in Newark. I want to shop in Brooklyn, but it's going to be what made you want to just say I want to do franchises and have other pain. I left this I did on another location at that point. Okay, so I own two locations and I was working on three but I was like, I don't I can't handle it on my own why so why did you why did you go you couldn't I wanted to maintain some free time for my family for my leisure. ER and for work, so I didn't there's a lot of business owners who just run around all day long to multiple locations and then burn out at night, but I always wanted to leave time for myself because I feel like that's important and I didn't want the business to overrun me. So I wanted to allow other people to open and I realize that in the United States you have to franchise if you allow somebody else to use your logo and your business name. I just found that out. So yeah, you can't let somebody else use it unless it's a franchise and there's a lot of people who like license their method there's their stores but you actually cannot you're not supposed to if you get caught. It's a big fine. You have to become a franchise if they are following your trademarks logos and name your trademark is to keep a method Kiko stretch. Studios the kike method was a bunch. Yeah. So I also French I mean franchise trademarked most of the trademarks myself. I just sat in front of a computer for hours until I figured it out and so so all right. So so you look the consulting firms, right? And what happened at that point. So the first one that called me back the guy Chris Connor out of Atlanta franchise Marketing Systems. And he pitched the whole concept of working with me. Like I think this could work. I'll be on a flight tomorrow and I'm like really okay mind you he was the only one that called me back. The other people called me back like three days later. I'm like that and so he came he looked at my studio. He hurt he listened to the whole model and he's like you could definitely do this. He helped franchise Massage Envy and a lot of other big franchises. So and his prices also like lower than all of the other franchise company 15,000. Okay. Yeah, most of them are 20 and out. And what do you get for that? Like he sets it up when he sets up the whole franchise model the FDD. Okay. All right so--okay so he came and then he's the one that set it up for you. He's the one that pulled the resources out of me the procedures. I had the strategies and he helped draft the I agree that you said the the academic Didi, what does that stand for again? Federal disclosure document and that's what you have to do in order to yes. So to have to open up a franchise you have to do the first thing up to as FDD, right? Yeah Federal Disclosure document. Yes. And you do that you do that with it. Nice States government. Yes. Each state has its own to thank wants that snatch the same FDD but each state has its own laws as far as Submission. So like New York, you have to submit your FDD. It has to be approved by the state each year before you can sell a franchise New Jersey. I can just give you my FDD and have you signed up on the spot New York. They have to approve it each year, New York. So is the worst and everything, California same same same so all right. So within the FDD So within the FDD, it's basically like the rule book for the franchise like this is what we're going to do for you. This is your role as a franchisee. This is my role it basically puts on the table every cost that you could incur with a business like this. It discloses to the franchisee everything. They would have to deal with if they decided to join your organization. Every possible element of everything. How long like how long is it? So mine is about 300 Pages 300 Pages hundred. Yes, and that's what he helped you right? Yeah. So he has a team of people that helped put it all together. So, how do you all right so is it like a set template to say like or like how do you come up with 300 pages of items or was using that that when you fired yourself you had so much writing already built up like I did so within the FTD so we do three weeks of training for each of the franchisees. So it lists how much time is spent on this topic in training like it spells out the whole training by minutes 30 minutes on this 30 minutes on that. It shows you the least possible amount of money you could use to open and the highest so there's a range it spells out liability of the franchisor. Like what are we liable for? What are we not liable for? So once the franchisee reads it they understand what they're getting themselves into and once they sign it you can't say I didn't tell you, you know, this is going to happen so that the FDD actually is the Instruction manual yes. It's yeah, you don't have like another one on top of that we do. So with the other one definite then there's an operations manual. So that's where all my strategies. Use Concepts all of my material as far as like how to find staff. It's in the operations manual. So the operations manual is what teaches them what to do. So that's a whole another document which came hand-in-hand with the FDA. And once they sign that document right the FDD. Yeah that can't deviate from that operational agreement. No, so how many pages is the operation? It's about 200 200 pesos 500 pages. Yes, it's like Lord of the Rings. So, okay. So how long how long does it take you to put together all of that? So I mean they were prepared to put it together within a month almost. That's what I needed more time. So it took me about four months. So you were did you actually write it yourself or you just dictated it to them dictated it to them. So what you ever suggest somebody can do it themselves. So there's some things you don't want to do yourself. One of those things is So the law so you really had a professional get in professional and do your research because a lot of people rip people off just to create that document. So you have to do your research so, you know what you're getting into. All right, so now okay. So you have the FDD done. Yes, and then you got approved how long it's going to take to get approved. So like once it was done I could sell and many states like once it's done. Here you go. Keep going. Okay, you want to open a New Jersey great. Well, I think we have to approve it. No. Unless you go to a state like New York, California. So so you were in Montclair, right? Yes one so if in New Jersey, New Jersey fortunately, right so like to put one in Brooklyn now, yes different right requires the state to approve it. All right. Okay. So you have the you have the FDD then you have the operational agreement and I up and running as far as you can now, you can have people buy a franchise right but that's only half the battle because people have to actually buy a franchise. Yeah. So what's the process for that? How did how did you get the word out? How did you get people interested in buying? Like how did that how was the first the first person that brought a franchise? How did that so I had so I owned a studio in Westfield Montclair and Westfield. So in Westfield, I had a manager that was so amazing. She was she was doing better than I could have and when I when you see Talent like that on your staff you have to do something about it or else they'll leave they'll find another job. Job, so I knew this position like she outgrew the position. So I talked to the company. I spoke to you guys about and I was like, how do I open up the first one? How do I find people and they talked about a pizzeria that sold their first one to their manager. They let their manager and it was already up and running it would be great to start with someone who knows the system. Yeah, so I proposed that offer to her and her husband and she took it so actually she became the first Franchisee, we have a slight franchisee story like 12 years ago. We try to get into a franchise Cold Stone. So there's an early episode but it was like, yeah, we need it 500,000 and we're like 20, right how we gonna do this, but you've created a different method. Yeah people who want to get into a franchisee. Yeah you want to talk about All right. So these franchises like a million dollars and some other franchise you have to buy three locations, but you can't just buy one location. You got to have like a million dollars and investable assets all kinds of stuff. It's not easy to open a franchise know so but your model is different, right? Yes. So before we even If you have a you have a sliding scale of the price range, right? Yeah anywhere from 30 to 90 correct, depending on geographic location exactly. So obviously major markets is more right and a smaller Market is less exactly are the major markets going to do more business. Yeah, and the real estate is more Innovative. Yeah, so alright. So what you also have income is it income-based income based financing can we like to call so yeah, can you explain that? So pointing that I'm coining Angel someone write it down. We actually bought that so basically like I started with $500 I had no net worth right. So if if someone offered me something they wouldn't and it would prevent me from having the opportunity of what I've done so far. So I kind of had that in my head like just because you have a million dollars in assets doesn't mean you're a good business owner. It really takes personality. This is a service business. So you have to have a personality. You have to be able to be likeable. So there's a lot of different things that would make you a good franchisee besides assets. So but I said it's over. Yeah, so will I so you can't have too many liabilities to get in but so basically it goes by person by person what but we look for number one people who are good with people people who show a healthy relationship with money. So even if You're making I don't know what $2,000 a month. I'm exaggerating but you're still saving for retirement five dollars a month that shows that you're you handle money. Well, and that's the biggest thing that we look for people who handle money well because if it's five dollars versus a million dollars, it doesn't matter because you're going to handle the business. Well, so we look at people's income what they currently do. Are they saving? What does their savings look? Like how much can they put up front towards the franchise what has been their work history what their passion is? We have a whole kind of checklist that we go over and we process it and then we approve them based on that. So who's we so it's myself and I have a team of three other people that helped with the franchise company and then you send but you guys can assist with financing to right? Yes. So can you talk about that? So the franchise fee is $30,000. However, Say you have 20,000. Usually you would never be able to own a franchise because you don't have enough money. So we might finance that other tin for you depending on the situation over time. So the biggest thing is there's a pool of people who are being left out of this whole franchise concept due to financial reasons. So we're making it easier for people who still have potential to get in and so so right now you have 12 franchises, right? Yes, 11 of them are minority-owned. Yes. Plus what I and you said that there's a certain demographic of franchisees that you're looking for why Millennials? What makes them the target audience here is another loaded question why Millennials? Well, so Millennials have been told by their baby boomer parents get a good job work there your whole life save for retirement. And that's it. You're a good person. However, we know that's not the case nowadays. You're learning very most people. Most people that's why you see speaking speaking of Mickey D's right? You see 50 year old six-year-olds working there because they don't have enough money to live off of their retirement plan did not carry them through so we have these Millennials who are getting frustrated with in their jobs. They've reached a glass ceiling and they're looking for opportunities, but nothing is there it because they are solely relying on their boss supervisor to give them a raise so, We've started doing is pitching for them to give themselves a raise through franchising and it's just a pool of people that are looking for a way out and we've realized these are the people that we want and we're going to help guide them and show them how to do it. It's probably one of the good things about franchise is that it allows you to so somebody said we had a guest and he said sounds of course Senegal, he said that in school they teach you not to cheat but in business you get rewarded for cheating. Not cheating people but like cheating as far as you see what somebody else has done and you copy that right? Right, right. I should use that word copy. Now you give a warning for copy, right? You you copy somebody paper and glass and you keep that school, right? You copy a business and you become a millionaire, right? So that's what it does is it saves the learning curve and like I said, I mean 97% of 95 percent of businesses fail. So if you already have a successful business your odds of being successful is a Higher, right then just starting out from scratch, right? And as you said, I mean you have 500 pages of a system that's already in place as opposed to just trying to wing it and start yourself. Right and it could be very lucrative to because you were saying like some of the locations like well over six figures. Yeah. So yeah. So those are all the pros I did a commercial for you look you don't listen so so, all right. So what's the revenue model like as far as how do how do you You make money off of the franchise, right? So we collect the franchise fees upfront or through our income based financing program. And then we collect royalties each month six percent royalties off of their gross income. So the benefit of doing a percentage is that if they it encourages us to make sure they're making money because if they don't make money are six percent is very small if they're being very lucrative and Our six percent is much larger. So we're constantly coaching them and helping them make more what I like to tell my friend chai's he's is that they'll always make more money than me. So it puts them in the mindset of oh, you're right. This is my thing. And one thing I wanted to say is we look for people who have currently been working for other companies as employees and putting their all into their job not but not getting anywhere. So it's a mindset switch. This is the hardest. Thing to get them to understand if you work just as hard for yourself, you'll make money. It's like what you said you said like their success is your success exactly. So how long is the agreement? How long does that last it lasts for 10 years. It was a ten-year period yes, okay, and then okay, so all right so--okay I want open a franchise I meet with you I get approved of course 30,000. Let's say I give you 30,000 and then I you get some help too. All right, like what's the what after that you said you provide training and we don't know if you provide so that includes three weeks of initial training 10 years of support and from Monday through Friday constant support. So what is the support like website support website support publicity, we provide graphics for the franchisees to use we provide the to like basically every tool you can think of with the SEO. For their location, but they're not going Staples like you do. They're not going to the oppose. They're much more sophisticated than I ever was great internship as you bring crows, obviously to Brand recognition that's there and recognize another plus of being a franchisee on it's okay. So now Peter 30,000 I get the shop. I'm making 10,000 a month. I give you 600. I keep ninety four hundred and that's fine. Yes. Okay. All right. I did it for the people that are financed. So the people that don't have Money up front that you finance or your company finances. How do they pay you back over great. So we work out an agreement 24 months 32 months. It depends of whatever the balance is broken up over time. So they would pay that balance and then they would pay the six percent interest added to it. Of course God, I think that it depends on the situation. Yeah. All right. So question so now to find out about having like a franchise like even like a McDonald's who has millions of franchises all over the world. How do you know if somebody's like deviating from like you sending spies in there like check when people like how do you know like yes. Really the door. We send out secret shoppers. We actually just did that to two Studios and they were there was a prize and also with social media nowadays, you can like we spot stuff sometimes like row. I highly wearing a pink shirt when they're supposed to wear a black shirt, you know, things like that, but we focus it's like its own little Department we focus on that just making sure that yeah, so, all right. So what's the process is like, okay. You have like you mess up too many times and you're done. Yes. That's also in the FDD. Okay, three strikes. You're out. It's yeah, it's basically three structure. Yeah. Okay. I didn't so you strip them off using the name and all that you can yes, this is a poor people to know because it's like like I said on me, I don't know this stuff so great. It's like if you want to start a franchise, it's good information. Like, you know, yeah, you got to know everything that you need to know before you go into business you cuz you gotta expect every possible case scenario. What? What could possibly happen you have to be the type of person that is okay with running with something that already exists right? You can make it your own because there's a lot of wiggle room. You can choose who you hire you can choose business perks that you would give your clients, but you have to be willing to follow an existing model. So if you're the type of person to take something and just completely rip it apart because you just want to do your own thing then franchising is not for you. So what you consider a franchise owner as an entrepreneur or a manager good question both because that's essentially what we're doing what I do manage the locations on a higher level to ensure that they're following our systems. So as far as me is the franchisor I have monthly calls with each Studio. I'll fly out a few times per year to like visibly see it just might so the This thing about my job is making sure it's just like my little studio in Montclair. We're all the same. We're all because we have clients that travel from state to state and they expect the same experience and because it's a service business, you know, people are very verbal about if they're dissatisfied. But so far we've been doing a really good job through reviews and things like that on Google check it out. Alright, so in the next segment, we're going to go into scaling. And how you gon blow this thing out the water? What's up, y'all? So if you're listening to this you obviously like podcast and you're probably like music just as much on Spotify. You can listen to all your favorite artists and podcasts in one place for free. You don't need a premium account Spotify has a huge catalogue of podcast on every topic including the one you listening to right now on Spotify. You can follow your favorite podcast. So you never miss an episode premium users can download episodes to listen to all flying wherever you are and it's really easy to share what Been listening to with your friends on Instagram if you haven't done so already be sure to download the Spotify app search for Ernie Leisure on Spotify or browse podcast in the your library tab. Also, make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode of Ernie Leisure again. Alright, so now we're going to go into the next level of business as far as we explain the whole process of how you got started then we explain how you set up the franchises now, we're going to talk about how you get Growing the franchise, but before we go there so we kind of briefly talked about it, but we didn't really fully go into it. So you have a system in place to hire or to work with minority business owners, right? Yes for your French. Is that something that you just do as an eye test or is that like a system that you have in place to kind of like like what's it the Rooney Rule if NFL yeah where they have to interview with that. Yeah, if anybody has thought the NFL they have to at the whenever they're hiring a general General. Right, and yeah, they have to they have to pick up an African-American as one of the candidates don't have to hire them anybody any minority. It could be Hispanic as well. Okay, a minority as one of the people that they interview. Yeah, so I said to say do you have something like that in place or it's just something that you just actively looking for ya. So it's organically grown like that just starting from Instagram people like what she's a franchisor doing more research. Search into what I'm doing and they see someone that looks like them. So I think that's what's helped grow grow it so far. It's just been organic because it can't because this I forgot the exact percentage but it's a very low percentage of I don't want to use the term minority is I never really liked that word. It's just so broad ranging and it's not really completely accurate different conversation for a different day. But yeah, it's for An American right? It's a very low percentage of African-American franchise owners franchisees owners and especially franchisors. Yeah, it's like me and two other people right and holkar. Yeah like three people in country. Yeah, so it's needed I needed to something that because we need more in every area but especially in this area as well. Yes. I think it's a great thing that you're doing and yeah kudos to you on that. Thank you very much. So alright. So you have 12 you have 12 locations right now, right? Yeah, where are they located? So Montclair, Westfield, New Jersey, Morristown, New Jersey Summit, New Jersey. Do you want me to just say you won't stick? Okay. I'm like nice going to take to New Jersey, Florida, Texas Atlanta, Pennsylvania, and we're working working on Nevada and Marilyn. Okay, so you have 12 right now. So you your goal is to have 65. Went five years five years. So how do you grow from 12 to 65? So far, it's just been word of mouth and just showing happy people like success stories. It's important. Like I never like to sell something that I didn't believe in so I'm really hard on myself my model and I'm like do I believe this because if I don't nobody else will so when I have a franchisee who's successful and they're making money then they post about it and other people get encouraged by it. So our strategy has just been Word of Mouth So far what so what type of locations are you looking for? A and then b as far as inventory what is needed to be put in into one of your Studios? I know you started with a ball on a mat. Yeah. I know we've grown since oh, yeah, what type of thing was the fireworks? What are the things that you need? So yeah basic operational equipment like phones computers. We have a retail area that consists of like we sell CBD products we have Brandon material we have these amazing jealous Ox that no other Studio has that you put your foot in and it's like squishy gel that has essential oils and things like that. We also have mats that have measuring systems on it. So we track clients results. So I there's another trademark Kiko stretch age. So when you come in will actually tell you how old you are flexibility wise. I added that before we track it. They said I was 65. I was 22. That's when I discovered I have asthma right and we track it. So we're giving clients measurable results. So that's why they keep coming back as far as locations storefront. It could be second floor. The thing is if you don't have street level visibility, you just have to have visibility in other ways marketing online presence. So we teach them how to to Market and be successful based on their location. What's the pricing model? So it ranges from $50 to $90 lights per session for also, you don't do monthly memberships. We do not do monthly membership. So is that the pack gems? Y-yeah the packs? Yeah. Why don't you come on so we do we work on a package system. So people buy packages of 5 or 10. So that's what we Market pitch. Why do you Yeah, why why packages as opposed? That's interesting because every time that I've been to it as always been monthly monthly memberships, right and everybody usually the idea with the monthly subscription is that people don't really cancel monthly things and it keeps its a way for some ongoing Revenue where it's right pay your package is like one time then I might not come back to July. So that's interesting. Why do you why do you think that the package is better than the monthly so we've actually done the numbers like with our competition who does memberships and so once you sell a membership once a person N cancels it's done. You lost a customer but if you sell a package, so we sell a package on their first visit. They come nine more times feeling like they're just walking in the door or not paying anything. We show them measurables results in between and then when it's time to re-up. We're like look how far you've gone. Would you like to purchase another package? Yes, they become addicted to it. We've done the numbers and we make more than half. We make double what the Studio's make when Only solicit memberships so because I'm sorry. Yeah guy. No, no. No, so I'm thinking in my head. I'm trying to Envision this one I call when I have an individual trainer each session that I go. Yeah. So like if there's how many customers are you seen at a time and it's so we have the Studios have three to four rooms. So three sessions at a time. Maybe it's too on good days. It's four sessions at a time. Okay that meets our so, okay. So psychologically they paid a $50 $50 for how many glasses sessions one occasion so per session. Okay, $250 right 10 sessions, right? And you said that they don't feel like the pain after they paid up front psychologically. Yeah, it's less low for 10 weeks, right and as opposed to just paying every single month, right? And so we felt like I built this system on that years ago and then when the whole Membership fees came I questioned it but we did surveys with all of our clients and they're like nah, I wouldn't I would just cancel it at some point. So we have the same clients that we've had for the past eight years. So all right, but how regular do people come in once a week? Okay, so it's not a scheduled thing where I can just come once if I do D intentions, I can come once a month or you can schedule it how you how you want clothes, but we recommend that you come once a week in the beginning. It's only classes. It's one-on-one. No classes one on one on one one on one one instructor one person. Yes. So what's the time frame that you have for that? So we do 25 minutes sessions 45-minute sessions in 60 minutes sessions. What like what all day all day. So who is your obviously you guys are gonna grow like you're set to do this who is your direct competition who was coming into the space since you've been doing it. This is a good who is who wasn't in that space before y'all there was no one was in the space before me people thought I was crazy of course, right? There's a company that actually flew out and approached me when we had the fire to attempt to buy me out. What happened was a big company they on a cycling Studio Pilates and they were looking for stretching. So it was me or another company and so met with the guy he's like a hole Blown Away, of course, we signed an NDA non-disclosure agreement. Aunt but I was I was able to chat with him and get his mind about what they were looking for as far as like acquiring a company. So basically the buyout was really low and they would give you they called it an owner salary or founding members salary and that's all you would get you would not own the franchise company they would so of course I declined and they went with my competitor. So we both started scaling at the same time. And actually that's the I just remember that's one of the reasons I did decide to franchise because I saw they were about to franchise. So I was like I have to do you think that the offer was low be due to the fact that you're African woman. I was gonna say I hope so because it was so slow like that. I can't imagine but I have no idea but the fact that I would not own the franchise is why I was like, hmm. Nah, I can't just receive a check. So okay, how much was it 250 a year? The buyout yeah, okay, so, all right. So this is very interesting for its active because all right, so you don't 101 right? I've never I've never heard of a gym that does that before but does that limit you as far as the growth could have how many people can you actually how many like how many rooms are less? So each location has three to four rooms? Okay. So yeah, do you think of that? Have you ever thought about opening it up? Because like yoga right and when I go to yoga is like 20 people right 40 people sometimes like huge and obviously the more money more people more people but obviously is better to get one-on-one, right? That's great. So have you ever thought about expanding and having more people in classes like actual classes? So we yeah, we tried we did the classes and then we would pitch like, oh try one on one session. And so people from the class will try them one on one and never go back to the class. It was a different experience. So if we have four rooms that are fully booked it's more if not the same amount of money of a huge class would taken because it's their parents highest playing its higher price. Alright? Yeah. Alright. Well that's important for people to understand because you gotta know your price point you got to know is you know different ways to make money right? It's like it's like close right you can make Money if your Target and you're selling jeans for $5.00 right or you can make money if your sex fifth and you something Jack 500 exactly going to Seoul s pair of jeans at Saks Fifth but it's higher price point exactly going to sell more pair of jeans to Target was to lower price point. We also we let our clients share their packages with friends and family. So the package has run out faster. That's what so who's the Target customers who like wealthy people higher income higher higher income. And so we have young athletes whose parents are like a type personalities who want their kids to be the best of the best the best of the best so we have eight year olds that come we have busy professionals Millennials who have great jobs, but their bodies are shutting down so they come to us and we have a baby boomers. So right now all all the companies are focusing on Millennials. How can we engage Millennials will any I don't know why people are so obsessed with Millennials. I'm a moment. You know, we're not we're cool. But I'm just saying like but people have forgotten Baby Boomers. So we've captured that audience with our business and now they're all what we sell is youth. We sell Youth and you have something that's measurable. So yeah, that's important that we like that right? Hmm. Don't that's those. All right. So what's next how can the people contact you if they want to open up a franchise? They want to partner with you headed? What's the deal? Well you information. So what's next so we're working. On expanding into other states. We're just trying to have a local kike stretch and major communities as a center for people to just feel good. I wish I brought my Mac but just basically helping to improve people's quality of life. So being that everything is about machinery and Technology. We forgotten the importance of human touch and humans. So we're going to concentrate instantly provide a human experience no matter what throughout the time of Technology. They you can contact me on Instagram. Let me say it real slow. So it's kike. I am so Ki K AI am you can email franchise at kike stretch studios.com for more information and we're just looking to change lives really closing the Gap and just helping people gain generational. Of starting with us today, that's dope. Thank you. Thank you for coming again guys, Troy. I got some housekeeping. Yeah. I wanted to give a big shout-out to everybody on patreon. Y'all know that that's how proud to pay program. We have some new members. Shout out to Patrick Chad shouted the Marcus he joined in at tier 5. So we're going to be talking to him a few times as mulch out to David and Kimberly and Sheffield out in DC Chef. We let you in on a few secrets that of things that we got coming up. So shout out to you so Patreon.com backstage during your leisure. You can join at any tips you'd like is five different tiers. And like I said, it's just a way to support the podcast financially so that we can do things like travel to cities and do more of our hometown hero series that we that we recently released Will shout out to everybody that's person that emerged shy guys assets or liabilities as a number 1 shirt. I think I got the the podcaster. So thank you everybody that's been supporting merch and we got some new merch coming out as well. And also YouTube make sure you subscribe to our ITunes Channel and Linkedin also we are just got on LinkedIn so connect with us on LinkedIn. So we don't want all social media platforms now Facebook Twitter Instagram and Linkedin and the Book of books tip of this week will be the book that changed your life the e-myth Revisited and that's the book that you told us where you started firing yourself. So yeah, check it out. Thank you guys for watching. We'll see you next week, please, please.
Kika Wise is the true definition of a trailblazer. She is the youngest female franchisor in America. Not only is she the youngest female franchisor in America across all racial lines but she is also one of only a handful of black franchisors in the county. She is the owner of Kika Stretch Studios which is a fitness stretching studio that has 12 locations nationwide. Kika has a unique income-based buy-in model for her franchises to help anyone become an owner. She also has a focus on inclusion, 11 of her 12 locations are owned by minorities. She started her first studio in 2011 with her last $500 that she had to her name from a tax return. She took a leap of faith and rented a room for $300 and spent on marketing $200 on marketing. In episode 37 she explained how she turned $500 into 12 national locations. She also detailed the process and went over the ins and outs for anyone looking to become a franchisor or franchisee and she gave the cheat code on how to make your business appear at the top of Google searches. Guest IG: @kikaiam Book Tip: The E Myth Revisited   ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app  · Talk Money With Mesh Lakhani Podcast: On The Talk Money with Mesh Lakhani podcast, Mesh will follow paper trails, chat with experts, and break down complex ideas to bring clarity to the mystical financial phenomena behind your finances. 