Franchise Friday – Episode 203 with Nathan Millhouse of Bubbly Paws
Sep 19, 2022Season 1Episode 203
Melissa Pang } Franchise Friday
Franchise Friday – Episode 203 Melissa Pang is joined in conversation with Nathan Millhouse of Bubbly Paws
About Nathan Millhouse, MBA, Franchising Professional
Experienced Owner and Franchise expert with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. Skilled in Coaching, Sales, Business Coaching, Franchise Development and Management. Strong business professional with a Master of Business Administration - MBA focused on Accounting and Business/Management from Webster University.
Located in Clearwater, FL Nathan’s career in franchising began in 1996 and he has been in this industry for over 20 years. He developed extensive franchise operations experience, holding positions as Director and Vice President, in health and wellness, senior home care and trade franchise concepts; where he led teams, who were responsible for the growth and profitability of existing franchisees.
In 2006 he decided to take his experiences and became a franchisee himself, owning and operated an automotive franchise for over 7 years. He then partnered on several medical device franchises in Florida for over 3 years before selling his shares.
A dog grooming and self-serve bath concept on a mission to make pups feel as good as they look.
With the vision of creating an elevated self-service dog wash, the first Bubbly Paws opened just outside of Minneapolis. After 10 years of fast-paced growth at 4 stores, they’re thrilled to announce that the Bubbly Paws name is officially a franchise!
Our Bubbly Paws grooming salons are bright, open and contemporary, featuring plenty of windows that put our team’s amazing work on full display. Take a peek to get a feel for what it’s like to step inside.
If you’re searching for a supportive and growth-minded franchise opportunity, Bubbly Paws is excited to work with you. We’ve infused the best of proven franchise models with feedback from seasoned franchisees to design a system that sets leaders up for success. Get in touch with our team to tell us more about your goals — we’re looking forward to getting started.
According to Nathan
I am interested in a franchise that's unique, has a demand and obviously has their chickens or ducks in a row, Bubbly Paws met that criterion when we started talking to them back right around the COVID era 2020. And we found that while they were unique in their space, they weren't one of these brands who jumped into something because it was trendy. There's a lot of thought and research done behind it by the bubbly paws team of Keith and Patricia. They now have an 11-year track record behind them successfully opening multiple businesses every couple of years.
Bubbly paws have really got nailed down their operations manual, their marketing and the way they've even designed all their support structures. They understand what it's like to start a business from scratch. Keith and Patricia had an independent doggy daycare and still do. And so, they understand the nuances of creating something from nothing, the same thing they did with Bubbly Paws, again, a concept that came with obviously research and feedback from all over the US and even Europe, where they went and talked to different concepts over there to create this brand. But they were very diligent in that approach. They wanted to make sure that
Franchise Friday, where you can watch or listen as we explore franchising, entrepreneurship, and small business ownership, speaking with the franchise industry thought leaders and subject matter experts that shape the Future Of Franchising. #FranchiseFriday – For more about our podcast, visit our website: https://futureoffranchising.com/ Produced by Franchise Source Brands International and The Entrepreneur’s Source.
Franchise Friday – Episode 203 Melissa Pang is joined in conversation with Nathan Millhouse of Bubbly Paws
About Nathan Millhouse, MBA, Franchising Professional
Experienced Owner and Franchise expert with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. Skilled in Coaching, Sales, Business Coaching, Franchise Development and Management. Strong business professional with a Master of Business Administration - MBA focused on Accounting and Business/Management from Webster University.
Located in Clearwater, FL Nathan’s career in franchising began in 1996 and he has been in this industry for over 20 years. He developed extensive franchise operations experience, holding positions as Director and Vice President, in health and wellness, senior home care and trade franchise concepts; where he led teams, who were responsible for the growth and profitability of existing franchisees.
In 2006 he decided to take his experiences and became a franchisee himself, owning and operated an automotive franchise for over 7 years. He then partnered on several medical device franchises in Florida for over 3 years before selling his shares.
A dog grooming and self-serve bath concept on a mission to make pups feel as good as they look.
With the vision of creating an elevated self-service dog wash, the first Bubbly Paws opened just outside of Minneapolis. After 10 years of fast-paced growth at 4 stores, they’re thrilled to announce that the Bubbly Paws name is officially a franchise!
Our Bubbly Paws grooming salons are bright, open and contemporary, featuring plenty of windows that put our team’s amazing work on full display. Take a peek to get a feel for what it’s like to step inside.
If you’re searching for a supportive and growth-minded franchise opportunity, Bubbly Paws is excited to work with you. We’ve infused the best of proven franchise models with feedback from seasoned franchisees to design a system that sets leaders up for success. Get in touch with our team to tell us more about your goals — we’re looking forward to getting started.
According to Nathan
I am interested in a franchise that's unique, has a demand and obviously has their chickens or ducks in a row, Bubbly Paws met that criterion when we started talking to them back right around the COVID era 2020. And we found that while they were unique in their space, they weren't one of these brands who jumped into something because it was trendy. There's a lot of thought and research done behind it by the bubbly paws team of Keith and Patricia. They now have an 11-year track record behind them successfully opening multiple businesses every couple of years.
Bubbly paws have really got nailed down their operations manual, their marketing and the way they've even designed all their support structures. They understand what it's like to start a business from scratch. Keith and Patricia had an independent doggy daycare and still do. And so, they understand the nuances of creating something from nothing, the same thing they did with Bubbly Paws, again, a concept that came with obviously research and feedback from all over the US and even Europe, where they went and talked to different concepts over there to create this brand. But they were very diligent in that approach. They wanted to make sure that
Franchise Friday, where you can watch or listen as we explore franchising, entrepreneurship, and small business ownership, speaking with the franchise industry thought leaders and subject matter experts that shape the Future Of Franchising. #FranchiseFriday – For more about our podcast, visit our website: https://futureoffranchising.com/ Produced by Franchise Source Brands International and The Entrepreneur’s Source.
Unknown:
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the franchise Friday podcast. My name is Melissa Peng here at the entrepreneur source and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Nathan Milhouse over at bubbly paws. So welcome, Nate. I'm so excited to be here. Great brand, but lucky. So super excited to chat with you here today. Thank you so much. I am excited for our conversation. So before we jump in, would you mind just giving us a little bit of background about you how you got into franchising and how you got to where you are today? Absolutely, I'd love to do that. So, my career unlike probably some different people in this space, my career has almost been entirely franchisee I added up the other day makes me feel a little old to say this, but 25 plus years in this space, so I kind of cut my teeth, right out of college doing a lot of operations and business coaching work with some major franchisors that work nationally, even internationally. At that point spent about 1012 years. In that space, I decided at that point, I wanted to get my MBA. So I did that and then decided having helped so many franchise owners work on and learn how to not work so much in their businesses that I would become a franchise myself in so I actually have franchise two different businesses been quite successful in both, both of those ventures. And then when I left that I was probably spent about the last seven years of my career on the development side, primarily working again, with large organizations, I have a company out of Canada, that that we franchise all over in North America. And then the last three years, Melissa had been spent more in the development arena, but with emerging brands, so young brands, as you're familiar with, that are new to the franchising space, maybe not necessarily new in their concept, but definitely new to the franchising space. So, but doing that, and definitely the emerging brands, like I said probably the last three years, specifically in that space, and bubbly paws is actually one of our clients here with franchise beacon. Awesome, no. And thank you so much for sharing because you bring a wealth of knowledge to the table from so many different, different aspects of franchising. So we can delve into any of those areas, as we talk today. But I also would love the perspective that you bring, have you been on the operation side? So that's, you know, after the franchise was awarded that whole section of it, then being on the franchisee side? Is that what you said being on the side? You bet in the shoes of these candidates? And then also, yeah, now during the development and kind of before the franchises award and seeing that piece of work, I worked on a cycle covered. I worked backwards in the process. Yeah, you did. Hey, and it still and it still works, all the pieces put together. So I love that. So today, do you want to speak a little bit more specifically, about bubbly pause and the brief overview of the unique differentiators of the brand. Maybe even like why you decided to? Absolutely so a couple of the key things that we really focus on. When whenever we in and when I say we I mean franchise beacon decides to bring on a brand and represent that brand, as one a brand that is really unique in their space that's unique that we believe has demand and obviously has their chickens or ducks in a row, if you will. So locally paws definitely met that criteria when we started talking to them back right around the COVID era 2020. And we found that while they were very unique in their space, they weren't one of these brands who jumped into something because it was trendy. They didn't want to kind of get into a space where it just said, Oh, cool. Pets are awesome. Let's do it. There's actually a lot of thought and research done behind it by the bubbly paws team Keith and Patricia. For I would imagine two years of research before they opened their very first public pause, which was April of 2011. So 11 years ago, they did this. Again, what really I think exemplifies this brand is they're they're not your typical emerging brand. As I mentioned before, you know, they've got a 11 year track record behind them successfully opening multiple businesses every couple of years. They even went so far as to open a bubbly pause in Meridian, Idaho, so the Boise market right when they launched as a franchisor last year, so it was October that they went ahead and did this they bought an existing brand converted into a bubbly pause to prove to themselves that they knew how to support and manage a coach and lead if you will, a team. So a franchise if you will, that wasn't right in their backyard, you know, all the stores are that are in Minneapolis or roughly a 20 minute drive from where Keith and Patricia lives. So this really stretched that envelope of, you know, can we do this, it made them feel a lot more comfortable about where they are at this point. You know, they bring obviously proprietary software, no one has done this before, in this in this arena. So they develop their own software, they own it, they control it, they push updates themselves, or they're not regulated to what somebody else is doing. When you look at it. It's like some kind of a concept, if you will, that you're able to pull off the shelf, per se, they've even created outside of just their own identity, their own shampoo and conditioner, and even cologne line is a new line that's come out. It's all manufactured on their end here in the US. You know, it's plant based, lots of essential oils, no dyes. Trisha very instrumental in that process, as well as kind of creating that formula and brand line that we're able to compete our stores, and then we even sell retail as well. Awesome, I might just need to get some for myself, the formula that we modified was actually originally designed for horses tails. And if you're familiar with like a horse sales, horse, but they wanted to be nice and smooth and soft. And so that's actually kind of where some of that line comes from. So if you have a dog, maybe it's a little wiry in its coat, this will soften it up really nicely. I love that. And I just love also to so deliberate in their approach to not only franchising but also just the business model in general is what it sounds like. And so my question to you is when it comes to brand differentiators, and you mentioned a few, whether that's specific to the brand, so maybe more like the shampoos and the software, but also when it comes to business model and the differentiated run business model, what would you say is important that maybe just franchisors in general, think about? And the reason I ask is, I think brand differentiator gets thrown around a lot. And the word differentiator, you know, in every vertical, there are a lot, a lot of different brands. And so it's like, how do you differentiate, but what's important in your mind, and with your knowledge, expertise and background? What's important for brands to look at when it does come to differentiating? And kind of highlighting those? That's a great question. And you're absolutely right, a different year does get thrown around a ton. And a lot of times when you hear it, you're like, Yeah, you're really not that different. You're kind of looks like everybody else. So I think a couple of the key things that again, we can kind of regress into some of my early part of my career is around the operations and the support system. That's one thing that again, bubbly paws has really got nailed down their operations manual, their marketing, manual, the way they've even designed all their support structures, kind of in anticipation of what's about to happen is second to none, you know, they're really on the forefront of being able to do that, because they understand what it's like to start a business from scratch, and not have anybody there to help take care of them. You know, Keith and Patricia had a independent doggy daycare still do. And so they understand the nuances of creating something from nothing, exactly the same thing they did with bubbly paws, again, a concept that came with obviously research and feedback from all over the US and even Europe, where they went and talked to different, different concepts over there to create this brand. But they were very diligent in that approach. They wanted to make sure that they were, they could be set up for success. Because you and I both know people get into franchising, because they want to mitigate risks, can't eliminate, but you definitely can mitigate your risk and in a good franchise system will help mitigate those risks and allow somebody to get into that ownership, idea ownership mentality that they're all striving for, and not be in business by themselves. They literally are in business together with a partnership, someone who has a vested interest in their overall success at the end of the day. It's so important for, I believe, a brand to look at, hey, what's the story we're going to tell and setting it up? Not just okay, I have an FTD check. I have an operations manual check. I have a software system check. And now I'm good to go. It's like okay, what you have to think about the franchisees that you're looking to bring on and what's the story that they're going to hear or that they're going to maybe connect with? And it is different for everyone. I love that you bring up franchising as being something that actually mitigates risk, because I think sometimes there's a lot of, you know, maybe misconceptions around franchising, I have to give up control. I'm having to answer to, you know, a franchisor it's actually not my own business and it's like No, actually, and this is again up to the candidate to really explore and then up to the branch to help the candidate explore. But better understand actually this could be, you can get into business by yourself or Yeah. By yourself for yourself. Yeah, yeah, I think that's, that's so important. And sometimes maybe brands can lose that just the excitement of becoming a franchise, you know, just checking off boxes, but not actually looking at what's the story I'm telling, or how a lot of times with, with young brands that are kind of launching into this space, there's so much excitement about them. And then there's excitement around, you know, that gets created within just the investor, the person who's wanting to run that business, they jump on board. Next thing, you know, they escalate in number of units sold, if you will, and then they start to run into issues on getting them open, or having the support team there to help that franchisee be successful from Grand opening to the first six months, their first year, maybe eventually scaling and getting another acquisition of another of another unit per se, in that and sometimes that can halt it when you're not focused on that. And one thing I think you'll hear, Keith say, a lot. They love slow and steady growth. Now, that doesn't mean they're only gonna do one or two a year. But they want to be calculated, they want to make sure they don't bite off more than they can chew, especially their first year. For example, the goal that we set this year, by the end of December was a minimum of 10 new franchisees. So nothing crazy. And they're shooting for three to five, open, bubbly paws. And right now we're in the process of doing four. So we're close, we're going to, I think we'll be close to at least working on that fifth one, we may not have it open, but working on the fifth one, so they did want slow and steady, obviously, year two, year three, year four, whose numbers will change, but they'll have the more comfort level behind it too. And they'll know, like he will say a lot of times, sometimes we don't know what we don't know. And so when we get into it, we may run into something that comes back at us and go, oh shoot, we got to make an adjustment, it's easier to do when you're dealing with just your first couple of openings versus trying to do 30 or 40 of them and then run into that issue. 100% and I know again, like you're saying it's really exciting. Once you have you're able to franchise as a franchisor able to award territories bring on franchisees that it can be it's not as fun and exciting, I'd say slow steady growth. But in the long run 100% That's what you want for your franchisees for yourself. To your point things come up, you don't even know and so you want to be able to support those changes that are inevitably going to come up 100% In your experience, just on the development side, also as the as the franchisee what, what, what are some things along those lines that you've that maybe you would say to a franchisor at whatever stage of growth, but it is important to focus on in the beginning, or as you're looking to grow. As opposed to just thinking, let's just, you know, sell as many territories award as many, I think the biggest thing and I've seen this even in my career, and previous where I where I established and ran different operational teams, for franchisors, a lot of times there's not enough transparency. And what's happening. So the franchisor needs to be transparent. I think, again, that's one thing I've been really happy with bubbly on is they're very, very open about everything even going so far like they say this, this is our first. This is our first one. That's why we did Boise to prove to ourselves, we could actually do it because we thought we could, it was just easier to prove to ourselves that we could do that. So a lot of times I think is just being open, being honest. And in my opinion, most importantly, is making sure that those first 20 3050 franchisees, that's sort of your foundation, it's like building a house, if you don't have a strong solid foundation, how are you going to grow any larger because it's going to fall apart? Those people are who help move you forward. They're the ones who become part of your, you know, by advisory councils in different degrees, and then they give you a lot of feedback. And you can learn so much from franchisees because of just past business experiences they've got, it's great to have those voices and be able to hear those things but it's also great to, for them to know and understand obviously with an emerging brand. There are going to be hiccups. But being very open about that and knowing if we get this trip near this foundation, right? We don't have to worry about it. Moving on later. So a strong foundation is going to give you a great home. It's Somebody to build on it. Those are the people that you literally are going to be the first ones to validate who you are and what you do. And so you've got to be able to be, you know, pinpoint right on with that. I think that's something that Bali paws and Keith and Patricia take very, very seriously. Yep, love, love those points. And looking at, yeah, you're strong, I say this all the time to to newer brands to where it's like, okay, you don't have, so maybe you don't have any franchisees or you're just getting started 100%, you want to make sure that they're going to be those franchisees are you going to be the like, they're going to become brand ambassadors, you're going to, they're going to become part of your team. So you want to be able to work with them for the next 510 years and love working with them. You know, so they're, they're going to help build your brand. So it's almost like an extension of yourself. And, and I think too, we so at the entrepreneurs, we work with bubbly pas, obviously, and we enjoy working with bubbly paws because I think they bring that emerging brand piece of it. So there are, I think lots of people who are excited about a brand that doesn't actually have a lot of franchisees yet, they get to be there at the beginning, and have a say in what goes on and be a part of building that up. And so, I think that's a big reason why we do work well together. And the coaches really enjoy working with you as well, because in addition to being new and emerging, you're also providing great support. And it's very deliberate, it's very, you know, like you said, transparent, these are all great things that coaches enjoy, and they're able to talk to their clients, it just creates a great experience, is what I'm saying overall experience. Yeah, and a lot of times I kind of what you're saying is that coaches love that openness? And is if we can give them enough information and allows them to, in turn, present a brand to a potential candidate? In a confident way. Not Yeah, this is pretty young Matt Sure. about them, they seem kind of cool. It's in the pet space, you said you like dogs, you know, here, talk to them. You know, it's not like that. So we try and be as, as transparent as we can, obviously legally, there's some things we can't do, but as transparent as we can on where we're at what we're doing. Even what we're thinking, and I mentioned to you earlier, in bubble is very accurate about how many franchisees are they bringing on? I know, we turned down a very large inquiry of 20 Plus, in Southern California, when we first launched and they, we them and us did not feel that was the right fit initially, that they weren't really into the brand itself, it was more just a business opportunity. And they want people who really see the brand, feel the brand, understand the brand. And what is that you're delivering to the client at that point. So it's kind of the, you know, kind of a mixture of all those things. And I think, you know, that's where bubbly, and I'm real excited about why I think that they've really been embraced by your team, there are TDs because it is a unique brand. But it's they're very open, and they give a lot of collaterals to help with the presentation. Yeah, that's so important. And you know, this, of course, but so important on especially when working with the entrepreneur source, and then, you know, bubbly poses all a lot of moving parts there. And this is such a big decision for the club, the clients, your candidate. And being able to, really, I guess, it's trusting the brand as well, you know, the coach trust the brand, the clients able to trust the brand. And again, it all comes back. And we talk about this all the time. But all comes back to experience and just from our conversation, bubbly pause. Again, it's it's deliberate, but also it doesn't feel like frantic or, you know, desperate, it's very much, which I think also then contributes to the experience of, we're here to collaborate. We're here to educate. That's another huge part of what the entrepreneur soars. Does is the coaching and the education, it's not about selling, you know, you're going to talk to these people about how they can use their skills in this business, what the business is, and then they get to make that call me. 100% And I think that's one of the biggest pieces that I took away from probably early in my career. Coming to this point was sometimes when you're in OPS, especially when I was with again, I was with huge national and international chain so I mean 1000s and 1000s of locations. A lot of times some new came on and you were just like, did they just have money and fog Amir and that's why I'm working with this person now. Um, hopefully pause is very diligent in that. Same as me, you know, when I talk with a client, initially, you I let them know, and I know your coach is kind of performing the same way. So I think that's why it works really well. You know, I let him know, I'm not here to sell you anything, my job is twofold, one, to help walk you through discovery process to see if this brain is a good fit and to, to make sure that ultimately you would be a great fit for the franchisor. If at any time during that process, one or both of us say, not a good fit, we're going to cut that cut ties and not waste any more people's time. At this point, I don't believe in selling anything, the brand should sell itself at the end of the day. So I'm just here to walk you through the process, answer questions, and I will be transparent. If somebody new comes into the area that you're looking at, and you're kind of slow rolling it, of course, I'm going to let you know, there's somebody else looking in here because that's only fair to do, but I'm not going to use it as a, Let me twist your arm to get you to do something that you're maybe not quite ready for. Because that's not going to make a good franchisee on the back end, they're going to probably be disgruntled or gonna have buyer's remorse, not a happy person. Now we're back to validation. You know, it's all these little snowball dominoes, right? That happen in there. So you're absolutely right, it's about creating that trust, no one, sharing information that ultimately leads to a decision, whether it's yay or nay, at the end of the day. I love I love all of those things. And I've, we talk about it all the time at the entrepreneur source about, you know, creating a great client experience. First and foremost, they're the ones who are going to be making this investment. So you want to make sure that they have all the information they need. And then also the collaboration is that other I guess bucket if you want to call it between you and the coach, that's going to really help the client to kind of get past obstacles, because it's just human nature, it just normal things are going to come up especially when you're looking at such a large investment. A lot of times the clients are first time business owners, they're looking at franchising for the first time, which is wildly exciting. I'm like, let's get more people into franchising. But yes, let's do it in the right way, where they understand what they're getting into. And actually what I see and what I hear from coaches and other franchisors is, the client maybe starts a little skeptical. You know, they're they're just something new, haven't really looked at it before, as they go through your process. And as you're helping them learn, and it's not pushing, it's not forcing to make a decision that selling like you said, it's just education, they start getting so excited as they continue to move through. And by the end, they're the ones like okay, what do I do next? Where do we, you know, should I do more than one? Should I be doing three? Like, how quickly can I open? Like, they're the ones who get really excited? And I think that's really why exactly, that's what we do and you want you want their excitement to be coming from that person, not you put in the excitement. And if I'm trying to excite you, I might get you fired up for a little bit, but you're going to lose your excitement over a period of time. But if I can figure out how to Stoke, you're on fire, then you make it grow. I get in a business, you know, it's a lot better and the decisions you're making, I'm not making it for you. How do you like personally? How do you connect with with your candidates? Like how do you? Well, I'm definitely a people person. So I enjoy meeting people. I think what a huge benefit of mine and we kind of mentioned it early, essentially in my career, having been in operations so I understand what our franchisors looking for and the type of things that they want back from the franchisee. And in that piece, I've also been a franchisee. So I've literally set on their side of the Zoom call or phone call or whatever it is learning about a brand, trying to see if it's a good fit for myself. So I can empathize with the things that they're going through the excitement, the apprehension, the anxiety that do Why's the dough antis? Is that worth it, you know, all that stuff that goes through their head. And I've been fortunate enough to be in almost every city in the US at different times with different parts of my career. So I can relate to where they live a lot of times maybe somewhere that they've worked. And so we're able to build kind of a quick personal relationship on our first call, kind of an intro call is just building that relationship finding out you know who they are, what's their background, even though the coaches do a great job of bringing it in. I'd like to talk a little bit about it and then relate myself to it may there have been in the area I've lived in the area I've seen it oh I know that company. I've used that company in those things, that kind of things to help build that relationship so they don't view me as because most people do when they start a salesperson. I want I want to create kind of a good friendship piece because that allows us to have really good dialogue about the brand. And not like you said coming in feeling like I gotta have my guard up because I'm someone's gonna sell me this isn't a timeshare, I'm not locking you in a room for 90 minutes, and making sure that you sign something before you walk out. Yeah, the timeshare that I'm going to use once in my lifetime. So I know 100%, like couldn't have couldn't have said it better myself on on all fronts and your unique position as well. But I think it's simply, it's build a relationship with the person that you're talking to. And sometimes I think it can get easy, you know, okay, it's just, it's another lead that I have to get through the process. But we call leads, we call them clients and seekers, an individual on the other side of the line, who has a whole background, all history, a family, and I know with the entrepreneur source, they are, this is something they probably never would have thought about. And so being able to connect to someone and learn about the brand, as opposed to just hey, here's the financials, here's what we do, you know, let me know, if you want to talk more, as opposed to not approach it's much more of this personable relationship. So it's sometimes a lot of times, it seems like a lot of the TLS coaches work with people and kind of in a transition phase, they either left a job, or they're looking at leaving a job, or maybe they got some severance. So they were given early retirement. Now they're like saying what's next, in my place. And so a lot of times I like to love when people are in that stage. Again, I've been there before. And I'd love to talk about the fact that you know, a job, it's just a position, if you left or quit or retire tomorrow, they would place an ad and hire somebody to replace you. Almost immediately, you'd love to say, and, obviously, you're awesome. I don't know if anyone could replace you, but they would try to do it. And they might do it for less money than they're paying you right, they'll get somebody younger, out of that job. So when you leave or you decide, I'm done, and you're ready to move on, you can't sell your job to someone else. You say Sayanora, you right up in the business sunset, they bring in someone fresh and they keep moving, they don't care. When you have a business and you set up a business, you're all that energy and effort and sweat and tears and blood and anxiety and excitement that you have is building an asset, that's an asset that you can sell. At some point, you can't sell a job, you can't sell your position at a company. But you can definitely sell the asset that you've spent time in developing, whether it's full time semi absentee, however you ended up doing it and setting it up, you still have something that has value to you, you could turn around and sell that and so many times where I've talked to people about that, because they'll say, Well, how long is the term? Okay, well, what do I do at 10 years, sell or renewer something, don't walk away, you've got value in something, don't just walk away from it, it'd be like saying, Oh, I'm done. I'm tired of living in my house and you just walk away, your house has value or your car has value or things are these have value, people don't just leave them behind. And so there's really those type of pieces to everything. I think that kind of goes to, again, kind of the synergies between what I think feel, and obviously how the TDS kind of presents themselves as well. Lovely brown brought that up. And it's something we talk about all the time we talk about income, lifestyle, wealth equity, like those are kind of four, I guess the four quadrants of someone's Why is how we've broken it down, essentially. And so that wealth and equity piece, exactly to your point, you're not going to usually you're gonna get that job. And definitely all the you know, people are working 3040 years at a job and then one day, it's just Banksia or eliminate your position. We're done. Yep. Sorry about that. Oops. So, you know, and and so to go to be able to understand from the client or the candidates perspective, wow. Like the I just love the way you put it, like their time and energy and effort and all these highs and lows and it's not for nothing, you know, you're building something and and so many times to people become very like a pillar in their community or they're giving back and it really actually the business helps them connect to their own values, where they couldn't with a job. And so that connects I think to with a lot of different clients and candidates. It's not just okay, the business, how much money can I make, you know, what's the business going to do? For me, it's how, like, how can I and this is what I say to you know, some franchisors is how can you connect your brand and help someone connect to the brand on that level as well? Absolutely. And I think that's crucial. I, I always tell people that there's three questions you need to be able to say yes to to be able to move forward with a business whether it's with a bubbly pause or any other brand that you might be looking at? One is, Am I really ready to own my own business? And everything that that entails? Not having a boss anymore looking in the mirror? That's your board of directors meeting, you know all those things that go along with it, then you got to be able to say yes to the industry. What is it that you're looking at? Do you really like it? Do you like what you're doing? Do you love painting? Or do you love pets? You've got to, there's got to be some kind of connection with that, because the last thing I want you to do is wake up and dread going to work or dread going into the office? And then the third one I say is do you like or believe in the leadership of that company? So in public pause, piece, that's why I get Keith involved pretty early again, one, because we don't have any open franchisees yet, we're very close couple months, but that I want to make sure that they feel like they can work with him, is it someone they can see themselves working with? And I say working because being friendly and doing stuff together is a lot different than working with someone. So can you work with this person, if you can say yes to the three things, do it, close the door behind you jump in the deep end, whatever analogy you want to use, you're ready to go. If you don't have a little anxiety or trepidation, I would worry about you. Because you should I've done it a few times. It happens, it's happened, it's normal, that's normal. Don't freak out about it. But a lot of that really does kind of tie in together on you know, making sure you're in the right place with the right brand, because you do need to be excited about it, you know. And that's one thing with bubbly paws, for example, they look for people that want to find people who love pets, specifically dogs that love pets. So they actually say the three P's, pets, people, and then profit profits, essentially you don't want to be in a business and not make money or you open a nonprofit organization, right? But it's really pets and people. And then the three P's kind of combined together to move that piece forward. So I think that's going to attract the right people is what line Am I get into and do I actually like and enjoy this. And the other thing you mentioned community, bullet clauses so big on community, a lot of their marketing is done, community driven. They do things called yappy hours, at little local pubs and breweries or restaurants that have patios and they invite people to bring their pups and then they have some little pup treats with them as well. Anything associated with dog parks, rescues, adoption centers, all those types of things that love to get involved in. And it's funny is that that really has attracted a lot of our franchisees, our clients that we already have now that are new franchisees, you know, one lady trains dogs, she loves this idea in this concept. You know, some people can't stop adopting dogs, they're up to five now. But they just they love that and it resonates with them, not just the business concept, and what am I getting at the end of the day by running this business? But like you said, how does it impact my community? How does it impact my living? Do I feel good at the end of the day? Like I did something? with it? I think that's crucial. Great points across the board. Just yes, no, I told you it would happen. So, you know, kind of going into this and going along with this. I do want to wrap it up here with when you do look over there, you know, you've had your 25 years behind, you've done so many different things and have a great eye great insights into franchising over the years. What do you see when you know when you think of the future of franchising is what does that mean to you? It's crucial to be honest with you, I really believe that there's more and more individuals are wanting to actually take control their futures. You know, we've heard it out there. The great resignation is something that a lot of people have been kind of saying, I think people are getting to the point of wanting to say, I want control over what's happening here. Too many times people get left out when restructuring happens. And now they're scrambling, what do I do? And they're trying, you know, they're fishing jobs and now you're stressing and you're anxious about finding something. And so, the interview probably goes horribly, because you're over stressing because you know, you're needed you and so I really feel that there's going to be a lot more people reaching out to that. I think most importantly, because franchising, again, doesn't eliminate but mitigate risk and mitigates risks. It gives us people who want to be business owners, and never stepped into that because of the uncertainties potentially surrounding it. Franchising gives them that in business for yourself, not by yourself. Concept. Again, it allows them again, that opportunity to explore any type of opportunity, whether it's pets or senior care, you know, service industry or medical, it doesn't matter. If you have a passion for something. There's definitely a business off opportunity that's out there for you. So I think franchises you know, they offer anyone that opportunity, again to start businesses for themselves with really a lot of times no real experience necessary. In a lot of these major opportunities that are out there, the franchisor will teach you what you need to know. That's what you're, that's what you're buying into that knowledge, all that experience that they've done. They have everything documented, so you know how to do this or how to do that. It's all taken care of. So I think it's gonna be huge. I believe that we're going to continue the streak. And, you know, you and I both know, that's really what America has ran on is the small entrepreneur, the small business owner, they're the ones who really are stimulating the economy. Amen, amen. Great way to wrap this up. So thank you, Nathan, with bubbly paws and franchise beacon for Thank you. So my pleasure.