In today’s episode, Jeff begins a series of shows exploring people who have created businesses based on their skills. In this show, Jeff interviews Lance Graulich.
Lance and Jeff discuss:
- How Lance started working on Wall Street for his dad and decided that was not his dream.
- Taking a summer job working with his uncle led him to start five TGI Fridays franchises and going on to start franchises in Wingstop and Krispy Kreme.
- After years of success in the franchise world, Lance went on to become a Franchise Broker. Today he works with clients to help match them with appropriate franchise partners. He has access to over 700 franchises.
- While the terms of most franchise agreements are not negotiable, the territory location, marketing support, and timing can be negotiable. Working with Lance and a Franchise attorney they can be negotiated.
- Some of the horror stories that Lance has seen are franchises that don’t want to work or are bad fits for the franchise that they chose.
- What is new in Lance’s life right now is his new podcast www.IONFranchising.com
Fast Five Questions:
- If you woke up and your business was gone, you have $500, a laptop, a place to live, and food, what would you do first? “I would take the $500 and buy a ticket to Jamaica and work in a bar like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. I would use my hospitality skills to rebuild my business from there.”
- What is the biggest mistake that you have made in business? “After bad experiences with partners I decided to go it my own way and create a Burger and Shake concept in Las Vegas. I had met an attorney that said he could help me raise money through a private placement. They ended up only raising about half the money needed so the concept started severely underfunded. While in the end we succeeded we ended up selling the restaurant to some friends.”
- What is a book that you would recommend? “The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber (https://amzn.to/3veAhdF)”
- What is a tool that you use every day that you would recommend? “A new social/crm called FlowChat (www.flowchat.com)”
- What is the best way to contact you? “Connect with me on Instagram @lancegraulich or through my website www.IONfranchising.com”
Jeff spent the early part of his career working for others. Jeff had started 5 businesses that failed before he had his first success. Since that time he has learned the principles of a successful business and has been able to build and grow multiple seven-figure businesses. Jeff lives in the Austin area and is actively working in his community and supporting the growth of small businesses. He is a board member of the Incubator.Edu program at Vista Ridge High School and is on the board of directors of the Leander Educational Excellence Foundation
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