For almost 12 years, I ran a business that never made any real money. For a long time, I didn't tell people that part. After business school, I had a clear idea of what "success" was supposed to look like. So when the chance came up to import Italian ceramics, I took it. On paper, […]
Everyone assumes buying an existing business is the safer path to ownership. I get why. There's a track record. There are customers. There's revenue coming in on day one. Compared to building from scratch, it feels like the grown-up choice. But after a lifetime around small businesses, I've come to see it differently. Buying an […]
Ask AI to find your perfect franchise, and you'll have an answer in seconds. Type in your background, your budget, and your goals, and out comes a tidy list of "great fits." Descriptions, investment ranges, even a few pros and cons. It looks like research. It feels like progress. But look closely at a list […]
I talk to a lot of professionals in their 40s and 50s who've hit a ceiling. It’s not a crisis or a layoff. Just... a ceiling. The role is comfortable. The paycheck lands on time. But the growth stopped a while ago, and somewhere along the way, "stable" turned into "stuck." That's usually the moment […]
Every professional who gets serious about business ownership eventually runs into the same fork in the road: build from scratch, buy an existing business, or buy a franchise. Most people don't actually understand the real difference between the three. They just know franchising is "the safe one" without knowing why. So let's actually unpack it. […]
We're heading into the last quarter of the year. For a lot of the professionals I talk to, that means one thing: another year of thinking about business ownership is about to close out, without anything actually changing. The idea is still there. It just never left the "someday" pile. Here's the thing about January, […]
Most professionals who think about buying a franchise never actually move on it. They stall because they're waiting to feel certain first, and that certainty never shows up. So the idea just sits there, revisited every few months, never acted on. I hear a version of this on almost every discovery call: "Keith, how do […]
Every week, I talk to professionals who are ready to leave the corporate world behind. And almost every one of them starts with the same assumption: "If I want full control, I have to build it from scratch." Here's the number that should make you pause before you do that. According to the latest research […]
I spent more than 20 years as an executive recruiter before I became a franchise matchmaker. So when someone in their 50s or 60s tells me they've been out of work for 8 months after a layoff, I'm not guessing at what's happening. I sat on the other side of that table. Here's the truth […]
I just spoke with a professional who came to me with one franchise already picked out. He'd done his research, talked to owners, and watched the videos. There was just one problem. It wasn't even close to the best fit for him. He came to me with a quick-serve restaurant concept already locked in. Like […]
For almost 12 years, I ran a business that never made any real money. For a long time, I didn't tell people that part. After business school, I had a clear idea of what "success" was supposed to look like. So when the chance came up to import Italian ceramics, I took it. On paper, […]
Everyone assumes buying an existing business is the safer path to ownership. I get why. There's a track record. There are customers. There's revenue coming in on day one. Compared to building from scratch, it feels like the grown-up choice. But after a lifetime around small businesses, I've come to see it differently. Buying an […]
Ask AI to find your perfect franchise, and you'll have an answer in seconds. Type in your background, your budget, and your goals, and out comes a tidy list of "great fits." Descriptions, investment ranges, even a few pros and cons. It looks like research. It feels like progress. But look closely at a list […]
