The Franchise Expert Explains the Benefits of Franchise Ownership

Most people only wish they had "gotten in" on the early stages of some of the nation's most prosperous and rewarding franchises when they first became available.  Seniors, in particular, are now living longer and finding they may want to remain active while still maintaining an ongoing income.

Owning a franchise may be the answer.

The Great American Senior Show found franchise guru Marty Greenbaum to share his insight as the man behind the Smart Franchise Investing movement. Greenbaum, who considers himself a "franchise matchmaker" is truly one of the most widely recognized experts in the franchise business.

As you'll hear in this episode of the Great American Senior Show, some of the most rewarding franchise opportunities are in the senior care field. 

Transcript

Sam Yates: 0:11

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another exciting edition of The Great American Senior Show. I'm your grey haired host, Sam Yates and today, we're going to dip our toes into the world of franchising, and you're probably going, Wow, where am I going to get that information from? Well, we have an expert with us. And it is my pleasure to have Marty Greenbaum join us. Marty, by all means is the expert when it comes to franchise and franchise investment. We're gonna go into that in some detail. Marty, welcome to the program.

Marty Greenbaum: 0:47

Hey, Sam, thanks so much. I'm so excited to be here today, and share my knowledge and experience with everybody listening. There's a lot to know. And I definitely appreciate the opportunity.

Sam Yates: 0:58

You know, when I looked at your background, I wanted to schedule a two hour show because that would be the part that covers your background, man, you have a lot of experience in a lot of different fields that lead up to the franchise environment. Tell us about yourself.

Marty Greenbaum: 1:16

Wow. Wow. Listen, I grew up in a franchising family. And so when I was a young man, my family was starting a franchise organization called PostNet PostNet stores grew across the country and around the world. I was involved in about 500 stores opening and I was in operations then kind of went into marketing my career. Well, being the youngest of four brothers, I decided I wanted to go out and, you know, conquer the world. And I started my first marketing firm. And eventually that grew into a franchise marketing firm. And I have the experience of working with in the pleasure of working with over 120 franchise brands as clients. So I like to tell my clients that I've seen under the hood in franchising, basically because, you know, when you go to their offices and meet to leadership and get to know these organizations, and by the way, I was at hundreds of conferences with you know, franchise conferences through the years, so I personally, you know, developed relationships with franchisors in my role in marketing was to help them grow. I help them find franchise owners. All right. But as my career has evolved over the years and getting getting a little older, I'm 59. I got the gray hair to okay, what's left of it, of course, but, but basically, I ended up becoming what they call franchise consultant now. So what I do is help people really learn about franchising and identify those franchises that could be the best fit for them. But I draw on years of experience in franchising and helping businesses and I've been a I'm a certified Franchise Executive through the International Franchise Association and just love everything franchising, but even more so. I love helping people kind of figure out their future.

Sam Yates: 3:14

Okay, Marty, could you drop a few names from the franchises that you did work with?

Marty Greenbaum: 3:20

Oh, Ben and Jerry's smoothie, King REMAX hertz rent a car famous Dave's BBQ fast signs, just so many.

Sam Yates: 3:29

When I again, when I was looking at your background, you know, I was getting a little bulged out, I was like, wow, you know, this guy has been there. So, you know, I think that leads us up to our our seniors. And we're also going to share this program on our business forum podcast as well. But from an investment standpoint, a lot of people who have the gray hair and they're not yet ready for that, I'm Gray, let's go play. They still might be wanting to invest. How do they go about that? How do they sort through it and even begin the process of looking at franchises as an investment?

Marty Greenbaum: 4:09

Well, listen, I work with so many people, that matter of fact, a good portion of the people I work with are 55. And over. And many people have kind of found themselves in this place where they've had a career for 2030 years, and they left that and you know, finding something else is new and exciting. And they're looking what's out there. What can I do, but most people you know what, it's not like, hey, when you reach 55 I'm 59 I'm right there with everybody. You don't want to work as hard. You want to work smarter, right? So finding a franchise especially one you know, that's what I'm going to call a semi absentee franchise. So most of the people that are older that I worked with that are have either retired or about to retired are thinking of retiring. They're looking for something where they could manage a business manage a team, and but not do the day to day, right. So that's how I help them. When you go online and you're looking at 1000s of franchises, there's like 3500 to 4000. franchise, it's just so hard, you know, they have limited information and you start reaching out. And then you get a million salespeople breathing down your back franchise salespeople, and they're there to sell franchises. So, you know, you're gonna get relentless calls, what I do is little different, I help people understand franchising, I educate them. And then as I get to know them, and we have some conversation, my goal is to really match them with franchises that I think are the best fit for them. Okay, so that's kind of in essence, what I do I educate people on how to buy a franchise what to look for what to ask, and make sure that the ones that we do work together towards and eventually decide on investigating truly makes sense.

Sam Yates: 6:03

Okay. I know, based on our audience here in the United States, and even audience around the world that we have, there going to be people that say, I want to talk to Marty, how can they get in touch with you? What's the best way?

Marty Greenbaum: 6:16

Well, my website is smart franchise. investing.com It's very easy to find me on my website. A matter of fact, I have a special website for podcast, smart franchise investing.com forward slash podcasts, where you could book a call with me. There's also my guide, my Oh, well. It's an ultimate checklist for franchise buyers, which is great. If you want to say, what would it take, you know, what's really this process look like? And what do I need to know before I buy that little checklist is fantastic. It's a quick read, but it really gives you a good understanding of what's involved. So I welcome anybody to reach out to me through my website, and love to talk. Like I love to talk to anybody interested in franchising.

Sam Yates: 7:06

Flipping that coin means that if there are folks wanting to buy into a franchise, you have to be talking with those who are the franchisees? Correct? Right. So you represent both sides, you can represent people wanting to get their franchise out there. And I don't mean both sides on the same deal. But you're able to if someone has a great idea, they can come to you and say, here's my idea, what do you think?

Marty Greenbaum: 7:33

Well, listen, I've worked with so many companies, so many franchisors as, as clients, and many of them were just starting out, many of them had a great business idea, maybe they saw some success locally, and said, Hey, we should franchise this, right. And so I've worked with companies that want to franchise and provide them advice, and I still do and, and, you know, being in franchising, as long as I have all those little resources in the various people and services and companies, I help franchisors really get with the right people that will help them. And there's some, you know, you got to be careful, because there's so many consultants out there, you got to make sure you're working with the right one. My primary focus, though, is now working with people that are looking to invest in a franchise looking for someone, somebody who's either trying to build a legacy for their family, somebody who's just not ready to retire yet, right? They, they, they, they you know, just see that they have still some runway left, and they feel like hey, geez, if I could earn, you know, an extra income, that would be great on top of where I'm at and create some extra cushion in regards to retirement. So there's a lot of reasons why people do this. But I work, like I said, on both sides, and thank you. But love, my passion now is working with actual people that are looking to figure out their future and find the right franchise.

Sam Yates: 9:05

From a financial standpoint, an investment standpoint, pretty wide open range, depending on what the person wants to get into.

Marty Greenbaum: 9:16

Definitely, definitely. Well with 3500 franchises to you know, more, there's the full range. But I'll tell you something, again, it really depends on what's going to be a good fit for somebody. So, you know, when I speak with a client, of course we touch on the financial aspect of where they're at what's going to be comfortable for them, and how does that fit into what's available and what they may have a passion for. So obviously, you know, people well you've heard this a million times over if you love what you do it's not work anymore basically salute all right. So if we can match them with a business with strong power formance that they could afford that there's some passion with them, guess what, that's the best case scenario, because then they'll grow that they could create some happiness, they'll have some freedom, there'll be, you know, growing their net worth. So there's, there's a lot to it, but there's investment levels that, you know, there's, there's investments at every level. And really, depending on what their goals are, and what what's comfortable for them, I, you know, I would make very specific recommendations.

Sam Yates: 10:30

Okay. True story, I can't reveal the the name of the person or the franchise, but I can say in South Florida, a gentleman who was in charge of expanding and developing a franchise for a relatively specialized fast food franchise, and it wasn't Burger King, decided he had reached a point in his life where his parents were aging, and seeing the different care models for aging parents, he had one of these aha moments and said, I want to get into the senior care segment. And he said, that was just an absolute nightmare, because of the number of people that were offering those as franchises. But is that one of the areas as we have an aging population, that there is a lot of growth for franchise development?

Marty Greenbaum: 11:23

I would say that, that the growth for franchise development with senior care has already happened. Okay. Because we have known that curve is happening for some time, a matter of fact, that, that senior markets so big, it's a $300 billion market, okay. And I don't know if you know this, but by 2030, you're gonna see, like, 20% of our population is going to be over 65. And 70% of those people are going to need care. So the demand is rising at an unprecedented pace. Now, there's just so many different franchises out there in that space. But let me share with you an idea, one of the ones that I liked, it's unique. Okay. All right. And I don't usually just plug certain franchises, but this one's unique. And I really like it. So most of the time, you have all these franchises out there, where they're gonna have caregivers coming into the house, senior caregiving, right? So there's one that hires seniors, as the caregivers. So imagine, you know, our workforce out there of people that, you know, hit 60 years old, and still want to work. But many of them have a tough time finding a job, right. And those people are knowledgeable, experienced, they've had good careers. And some of those people become caregivers. And for the so I look at as a win win, that franchise is a win win, because not only are you helping seniors find jobs, but you're helping seniors, you know, the the clients or the customers be taken care of by very responsible people that could you know that it's a whole different, whole different type of employee base compared to what the traditional senior care model is. So I find that to be neat. Now, in the senior care, industry, as far as franchising, there's also ancillary services like, like accessibility, that's a great franchise where people need wheelchairs, they need chair lifts, they need their house retrofitted. So there's franchises for accessibility, there's franchises for senior placement into long term care facilities. And guess what, there's also a franchise for estate sales, which I think is amazing. Right. So, so yeah, I hope that answered your question. But yes, definitely, senior care market is big. But I will tell you, if you get into that it's more hands on. Because if you're a franchisee of that type of a franchise, you have to build your business and really go out and network. So it's kind of a tough business where you have part of the business where you're managing these caregivers. And the other part is you need strong sales and networking and community involvement. So I think I think a lot of people don't realize that segment that you just talked about, and that is the marketing and sales portion of any franchise.

Sam Yates: 14:31

It's easy to think I can do something, but do you have the ability to market and do sales for that? Is that one of the the things that you based on your background that you really stress they must be able to do?

Marty Greenbaum: 14:46

Well, listen, I had a marketing company in franchising. So now I look at marketing it with a very unique perspective. A lot of these franchise companies, you know, the key is do they have good marketing All right, and it varies from franchise to franchise. So in franchising, there's a lot of great vendors these days. So like digital marketing, social media, all the review generation. And all these things are some great companies that have developed economies of scale. So I understand who these companies are in their capabilities. But I also look internally to say, you know, what value does this franchise bring from that perspective, because most people that are trying to learn and operate a business will not have the ability to market it also, like you had mentioned. So yeah, very big thing in regards to evaluating a franchise organization. And not only do we look at those things, but in our due diligence, we're going to talk to other franchisees, right, you're going to have conversation with other franchisees and talk about their challenges and the strengths of the franchisors and the weakness of the franchisor. So there's a lot of ways to analyze that value, from a marketing perspective and all kinds of perspectives that, you know, I help my clients understand. And, you know, make sure they're looking at the right things, and they understand what they're getting into.

Sam Yates: 16:11

I'm often amazed at the new things that come to market that, you know, five years, 10 years, 20 years ago, weren't even heard of, and now they're out there, either with a service or a product, or something that is in the development stage. Anything that's really jumped out and been a big surprise for you.

Marty Greenbaum: 16:35

Well, it's crazy, they have this, I'll share a couple of crazy ones with you. Okay, they have this, you know, those big trash bins, those big dumpsters that you see everywhere, and construction sites behind, you know, industrial sites, there's this thing that goes in and compresses down the the trash in those dumpsters, and it's really cool. It's like a steamroller with all these spikes in it, and they have an articulating arm comes down smashes everything, and it saves these companies money on on hauling the trash. So that's an odd one. You know, that's definitely an odd one. But there's things like that are great, like women's hormone therapy, okay, where there's a lot of women that are, you know, in menopause are experiencing, whether it be issues, weight gain, and all these various things, and there's a great franchise to help women that are experiencing those things. So, you know, there's everything there. Here's a unique one. And I like, you know, when it comes to categories, right now, based on where we are as an, you know, as a, as a country where we're at from a inflation and economy standpoint, I'm very careful in working with clients to basically take a look at these franchises and say, if we get into tough times, are they going to be able to sustain the business? Right, that's key right now. Absolutely. And so a couple areas, you know, that I really favor right now in franchising is number one home services. And let me share with you why in home services. Right now, real estate market has really is hurting right now. Because, obviously, interest rates have gone up, right. So guess what, there's going to be a shift to people of people taking care of their existing homes. And by the way, plumbers are never going to be hit by a recession. You know, drywall guys are not going to be hit by the recession. There's a lot of repair HVAC, especially more important than ever. But in the home services space, one that I liked a lot is home insulation, re insulating your home based on energy prices going up based on tax credits for that there's some great franchises in installation, right? Or installation, excuse me, restoration franchises, things like that. But anything to do with Home Services, most of them still are strong. They do well in recession, people need the services no matter what. And, you know, another concern and something I always consider is the ability to find employees, right? Oh, because we, it's big. So I think that there's going to be like, a lot of jobs freeing up from that new construction industry and they're gonna go to work on remodels and all these home services. So I think there's going to be availability of more and more employees based on where we're headed. Another big area that's hot and franchising is healthcare. Another great recession resistant franchise, right? But there's all kinds of different health care options sprouting up you know what one that's really neat is like mental health Think about the people that are dealing what the pressures of society today, right? So maybe they lost their job, maybe they're displaced the political environments rough, you have a lot more people on opioids than we ever had. You have confusion between, you know, parents and kids and what they're teaching kids and everything, there's so much going on. So like a mental health franchise, it kind of really makes sense. And it's a really neat business model. Again, very recession resistant, but there's so many neat, there's everything from labs, to chiropractic, to, to med spas, and all the all the different things in between, and even urgent cares. So that's another great area. And one more I want to mention real quick is the pet industry. People love their pets. And with COVID, the amount of dogs in the US almost double. It's crazy. So right now, anything to do with pets very hot. So those are some neat examples of some of the different franchises out there. Hope that was helpful.

Sam Yates: 21:10

Marty, I feel like that you took a look at my resume and pulled some of these hot items out of my background and my resume Wow used to be a very active consultant with the Iams company prior to, the founder of the items company selling it to Procter and Gamble, and also in the urgent care industry. And I was thinking, Marty looked at my resume and pulls them out that's trying to entice me back into some of those arenas. But I agree with you, though, the one thing that I think a lot of folks tend to overlook is how many businesses are always going to be there, and you certainly hit on a good number of them right there. Absolutely. Right. I want to ask another question. Can you come back for another episode?

Marty Greenbaum: 22:00

Oh, I'd love to.

Sam Yates: 22:02

I think we've just basically scratched the surface of where we can have more conversations. I mean, the things that springs to mind, what is a franchise? What does it take? How's the regulations? There's a whole different set of questions that I would like to get into. But I, I always try to keep an eye on the time so I can keep our our episodes around 15 or 20 minutes, because those are prime times for people either listening in their car or watching at home while they're doing some other things. So I think I heard a yes, I can come back.

Marty Greenbaum: 22:35

Definitely. I would love to thank you.

Sam Yates: 22:37

All right, and one more time, so that our audience, whichever podcasts, we continue to use this on, how can they get in touch with you?

Marty Greenbaum: 22:46

Well, like I said, my website is smart franchise investing.com. My email is Marty at Smart franchise. investing.com. Pretty easy, pretty easy. So I'd love to chat with anybody who would like to learn more or that I could help. And really what I wasn't, you know, I'm here to educate. I'm not I don't sell franchises. I educate people. And I'm a matchmaker, so I'd love to help anybody, any anybody that needs help in that regard.

Sam Yates: 23:14

Somehow, I think in all of this, that when Marty is doing things that he loves doing, it's not really work, because I can I can see how much you love doing this. So Marty, thank you for being with us here on the program today.

Marty Greenbaum: 23:28

Thanks so much. Really, Sam, it's been a pleasure.

Sam Yates: 23:33

Until our next episode, I'm Sam Yates, your grey-haired host of the Great American Senior Show, have a great day everybody.