Guide To Franchising Your Business: Q&A With Robert Bruski, Ctrl V

In addition to the value it brings prospective owners, the franchise model is a great option for existing businesses to expand their reach and address a broader market without bearing the full financial and time burden of both the growth and ongoing operational responsibilities. Through partnerships with passionate local entrepreneurs who will represent the brand well, franchisors can be confident in the future of their brands and capture a steady stream of revenue created by franchise fees and ongoing royalties.

For many business leaders, it seems like a no-brainer. Still, the process of establishing a franchise requires substantial preparation and has many moving parts.

To help demystify the process, 1851 Franchise spoke with Robert Bruski, CEO and co-founder of Ctrl V, about his journey to franchising and advice for others looking to follow a similar path.

A transcript of Bruski’s interview with 1851 has been provided below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity and style.

1851 Franchise: Why did you decide to franchise your business?

Robert Bruski: Everyone always talks about franchising providing entrepreneurs with a way to grow a business if they have an idea but don't know how to start. Sure, that's a valid point and that's something I absolutely do consider. And there is some form of food for the soul when you see that you've helped somebody out and they've grown to become an entrepreneur. 

But beyond that, in my opinion, franchising is a business model — not necessarily an industry like a lot of people claim it to be. You have to look at your specific business and think about what the path to growth is. Franchising comes with its own benefits, but it also comes with its own hardships, and you have to outweigh the cost benefit analysis and the ROI on it. So when we looked at our industry, we saw that we were the first ones in the world to do this. It was kind of out of the ordinary, and nobody really wanted to take a risk on us from a standpoint of financing, investing or anything like that. We put our money into opening our own location, so if it was time to grow and open more locations, we would have to be totally self-sufficient on that. 

Franchising as a business model gave an opportunity for great growth for the business. But more than that, the whole nature of franchising is great for us because you need a local person there. If you’re opening up something huge like a Walmart or Apple Store — brands that aren’t franchised — people already know the brand. You can open the business and people will go to it. With an emerging brand, you need a local person on the ground to build up that community hype and grow the brand.

Number one, it helps people become entrepreneurs. Number two, it’s a business model that fit us. And number three, new businesses require franchising. The way we got into this was that someone approached us and said, “Hey, we want to buy a franchise.” We said, “Let’s rock and roll. There’s no time to waste. The business has been proven. It works. Let’s go crush it.”

1851: Given that you’re the only ones doing what you’re doing and investing in a franchise is expensive, were you ever concerned about the long-term viability of the business and your ability to maintain steady interest from prospective investors?

Bruski: I like to say I have concerns about everything but really, that first franchisee ended up re-signing for a second term. He moved out of his parents’ house and bought a condo. Usually, the first franchisee is where the franchisor makes all of their mistakes, so we’re very fortunate that he’s still with us.

I wasn’t too concerned about finding more franchisees. In retrospect, I think I should have been, because it’s very difficult, but because of who I am, I wanted to take the most difficult thing and see if I could win.

1851: What advice would you give to someone thinking about franchising their business?

Bruski: Don’t! 

Okay, not really — but I think a lot of people think their business is franchisable. It very well might be, but your business probably isn’t franchise ready. So don’t dive into it the first time you consider franchising — take the time to prepare.

There are a lot of things you have to do to make it franchise ready, including building support systems, the legal and accounting things you need to do, creating an FDD [franchise disclosure document], things like that. A lot of people think that the business works — they’ve proven that it works — and therefore anyone will be able to make it work. 

There’s this advice that goes around, and I’m paraphrasing, but you essentially need to build a franchise for the average person on the average day with the average level of motivation. I don’t think franchising is for the average person because the average person does not have the drive to build this. The average person does not have the wherewithal to think of the small minutia like a payroll software. That’s why they require the help of the franchisor.

Don’t think you can “just do it.” Talk to someone who really understands it and has been through the pitfalls. Make sure you’re incredibly financially prepared or have a source of income to support the franchise business as it grows.

1851: How did you go about searching for and selecting any industry professionals you ultimately chose to work with?

Bruski: At the very beginning, consultants were in the picture. It seems like a no-brainer. Someone’s going to find leads for me, and I don’t have to pay them until after I get paid? But the shocking thing was how much they took as a commission. It blew my mind because they’re not doing the sale, they’re just making the introduction. And they all have an excuse — they need money to pay for marketing or do this and that, but it just didn’t make sense to me.

But we decided to give it a shot. What we found was that a lot of consultants really stuck with their true players — the brands that they know and can always close the deal on — despite what their client wants. There’s a statistic floating around that says something like 60% of franchisees that come to a business through a consultant don’t even survive their first term.

It might sound a little arrogant, but knowing myself, I always like to look at things and decide whether they’re good enough for me. Not just whether they’re good enough, but are they good enough for my expectations that I’ve set higher. In building my own team, I can do that. Bringing on a team is so vital. As a franchisor, you’ve got other things to do, and having an operations team, coaches and a sales team ensures that you can spend time with the lawyers and accountants rather than devoting all of your energy to coaching a single person to complete a single task.

1851: What is your advice for someone looking to build a team of trusted advisors?

Bruski: I think it depends on the vendor. You have to be strategic. 

To franchise, you need an FDD, so you need to start with a lawyer right away. To get an FDD, you need an audited financial statement, so you need to start with an accountant right away. 

But there’s no point in paying someone a salary to be a coach if you have no franchisees. Oftentimes, fractional franchisee coaching is a wonderful option because you can bring those leaders in as the franchisees come in.

A lot of the things you can get away with the bare minimum for a period of time, like with marketing. Most people understand how to make a Facebook ad or print some flyers. When you’re at the point that you want and need better Facebook ads and a centralized effort, that’s when you hire a marketing professional. But to get the ball rolling with things like this, you can kind of shimmy along the way.

It’s also incredibly important to get someone who matches your core values. I know that’s super cliche, but it’s cliche because more core values are something like “integrity” and “honesty,” printed on a poster that’s going to fall off the wall and hit you in the head. You’ve got to make sure that your core values actually represent what makes you successful, not necessarily representing who you have on your team now — you might have the wrong people on your team. For us, if we bring someone on, they need to align with all five of our core values. We’re going to go through the highs and lows of business with them, and we need to be sure that we’re on the same page.

1851: What was one thing you wish you knew about the franchise process?

Bruski: I wish I had known that there were alternatives to services that I would require outside of what I had been presented with.

A franchisor usually goes to a franchise conference, and they’ll see booths for marketing agencies, accountants and lawyers. It’s always the usual suspects at these conferences, so it kind of gets in your head — “This is my library to choose from.” But there’s a good amount that don’t show up to these conferences. Like I said, franchising is not an industry, it’s a business model. There are plenty of lawyers and accountants who are fluent in these things but don’t show up to franchise conferences, and they can often do a better job more affordably. 

You’ve got to really become a part of the community of other franchisors and hear what they’re saying. Not reviews. Not testimonials. The franchise-only round tables are where you’ll hear the good, the bad and the ugly, and that information can help guide your decisions.

Growing and selling franchises is difficult. No great franchise did it alone. Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisors grow their franchises with confidence? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and see what we can do for you.