Today we’d like to introduce you to David Weaver.
Hi David, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Grew up in Indiana, both parents were business owners, Dad-manufacturing Mom-interior designer-Herman Miller Dealer. IU business school – Kone Elevator Company out of school, sales engineer. Realized that corp America was not my bag – politics over performance. Moved to smaller company and worked directly for the President, that was better. Dad called and need my help – moved from Denver to Detroit to and from sales to running the shop – operations. big change, big challenge – loved and hated that move. Back to Denver – Landmark – privately held direct lender learned franchising, banking, and small business growth all at the same time. This was a great gig until the financial meltdown of 2009. I bought a bar on DU’s campus and started FranChoice at the end of 2010. I have been helping people follow their dream of business ownership ever since. Today, my wife and I invest in franchise assets, real estate alongside the franchise consulting practice. This year we empty nested for first time, bought a house in the Roaring Fork Valley, and love trying on the pace of Mountain living from time to time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
HA – Smooth? – I guess that is a question of pain tolerance. No – change is good and typically where the learning happens, but it is also typically painful/rough until the learning happens. What do I mean by that?
1. Elements Massage – we owned this from 2013-2017, successfully sold as designed. The first90 days of ownership we had 300% employee turnover with 50ish employees. So, in 3 months we hired and fired/quit 150 people. That is a lot of work with little output. The employees were mad, the customers were mad, we were mad – then we learned who we were looking for, who we wouldn’t tolerate and how to lead this type of employee. We sold that business largely due to the stable team we built. That team was largely in place for the new owners at the end of 2019. That is something to be proud of.
2. Decorative Concrete -purchasedin 2007 – did some jobs, build systems up, and made our initial investment back by the summer of 2008. We were ready to really grow and the financial markets fell apart…. let’s just say no one wanted to invest $15,000 into a fancy back patio that summer. Then we realized that the labor market (all with new need for a job) started their own businesses…. the price moved from $15/per square foot to $8. We had to pivot our plan, put the business on hold and eventually shut it down at the end of 2009 once it was apparent that the impact of the financial crisis made a lasting dent in our game plan.
3. COVID has not been that great for a guy that sells the idea of taking your life savings, break out on your own because corporate America is no fun….yeahexcept, the government forcing small businesses to stay closed. It was not very much fun to tell my youngest that I needed to cash in her college fund to live on this year and by the way, because it is a 529 plan, she will take the tax hit personally. See what I mean about learning – who knew that is how it worked? That was rough, and still is a point of tension and I wouldn’t expect her to understand how I am going to replace that in the next 2 years. You learn to get comfortable with big ups and downs.
4. I learned a lot through the foundry experience – many examples of painful learning. Cash-flow, managing people w/o industry experience, working through family business dynamics is always tough. Learned that people are funny about money.
We’ve been impressed with Gratitude & Growth, Inc., but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My company is called Gratitude and Growth, Inc. (my daughter picked the name at about 11) my platform is called FranChoice. FranChoice is a license agreement – they offer national exposure and inventory management services for the franchise brands I get to work with. I get to help people that have dreamed of business ownership for years actually do something about it. I share a path of educational steps to put that dream on the ground and make it actionable. I act a bit like an executive recruiter in the franchise space – I help people transition from something they know and understand (corp job – W2 income) to something the want but don’t know much about (business ownership/franchising – K-1 income). I am proud of being part of the FranChoice family because we are the smallest number of consultants across the country but we as a group produce roughly 3 times the business owners of our closest competitor.
I think what makes me different than most franchise consultants is that I have done, am doing what I am advising on. I actively invest in franchise brands and run these businesses alongside doing other things or projects. So, when a candidate asks me, can you really run this business semi-absentee? I can say – sure some people can – this is what it takes, this is what it looks like, this is what I did in this situation as an example. Here are some great questions you should ask the franchise regarding that topic. I like that I can say, I’m doing this right now – rather than saying back in the 80’s or 90’s I was a big deal and now let me tell you all about it – style of consulting.
Most people don’t even know that there are people like me to help them navigate the franchise space. There are 4000 companies selling franchises – some are great and some are horrible – how would you know the difference if the franchise salesperson is really great? I have relationships with 200 +/- franchise brands, we put these brands through a screening process. I want to send candidates to brands with leadership teams that knows what they are doing, business models that are well built and have a process to follow, a support structure in place, etc. I also share my own personal investment criteria process with my candidates to help us get to the brands that they should be investigating first. Once they are researching specific brands, I help them ask the right questions of the franchise and the franchisees – this is critical to verify what the franchise is telling the candidate by talking to franchise owners for their input. – The best part! – My service is free to the candidate – they don’t pay a dime to me. Like an executive recruiter who finds a COO or President for a company – I am paid by the franchise for my consulting time.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
1. I wish I started sooner. I waited and planned my life to a tee and I kept myself stuck to a corporate job well after I was ready to break free.
2. Cash is king – beingfrugalin your personal life is super helpful.
3. Flexible is strong – Please take the time to create a game plan/business plan and stick to it, however, at the same time be ready to pivot along the way becausenew informationcan change things.
Pricing:
- FREE
Contact Info:
- Email: dweaver@franchoice.com
- Website: www.franchiseyourfreedom.com www.franchoice.com/dweaver
- Facebook: facebook.com/FranchiseYourFreedom/
