Owner-operator models
You're in the business every day, especially early. This is how most franchise systems are designed to work, and it's often the fastest route to a business that actually performs. It requires you to go all in.
The Strategic Path to Business Ownership
Helping you through the franchise journey. No cost to work with you.
Schedule a conversation
Charlotte, North Carolina
Who you'd be working with
I don't just talk about running a franchise. I live it.
In 2018, while still in a corporate role at a large financial institution, my wife Stacey and I signed our first StretchLab franchise agreement. We were named Rookie of the Year. Today we operate seven studios across Charlotte and Columbia, South Carolina.
I know what it's like to sit where you're sitting, because I sat there. I worked with a franchise consultant myself before I bought anything, and I remember exactly how much I didn't know I didn't know.
I also know what happens after the paperwork is signed. Hiring your first general manager. A build-out running six weeks late. Deciding where to place your third location. Operating a touch-based business through a pandemic.
I've also served on brand, technology, and franchisee advocacy committees within the system — which means I've seen how a franchisor and its franchisees actually work things out, not just how the model looks on paper.
Eight years in, seven studios open, and I'm still running them. That's the perspective I bring to the table.
What this costs
No cost to you. Here's why that's true.
My services are free to candidates. Franchise consultants are a marketing line item for franchise brands — the same way a seller pays the real estate agent's commission, the cost sits on the brand's side of the table, not yours.
I work with over 250 vetted franchise brands, and my goal is to find the right fit for you. If the right answer is that franchising isn't for you, I'll tell you.
The process
Five stages. Typically 60 to 90 days — faster if you're ready.
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01
Discovery call
Thirty minutes. We figure out whether there's a fit to work together at all. No pressure, no pitch. Some conversations end here, and that's a fine outcome.
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02
The working session
Ninety minutes, and this is the real work. Your capital, timeline, appetite for risk, how involved you want to be, what you're good at, and what you'd hate. Most people arrive thinking about industries. We end up somewhere more useful: the shape of the business, not the sign on the door.
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03
Your matches
I bring you a small number of franchise concepts — usually three to four — that fit what we built together. Not a catalog. A short list, with my reasoning for each.
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04
Due diligence
Usually four to six weeks. Discovery calls, FDD review, validation calls with existing franchisees, financing conversations. We talk weekly. This is where most people get overwhelmed, and where having someone who's been through it matters most.
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05
The decision
I can't make this call for you and I shouldn't. My job is to keep you grounded when the excitement peaks, ask the questions you're avoiding, and make sure you're deciding on facts rather than momentum.
Who this is for
Different models. Not better models.
Most of the bad outcomes I've seen come from someone choosing a model that didn't fit them — not from choosing a bad brand.
Manager-run models
Perhaps you keep your current job, hiring a manager to run day-to-day activity. Lower personal time commitment, and it demands real discipline about hiring and holding people accountable from a distance.
Multi-unit / area development
You're signing for larger territories and building a substantial business over years. Higher capital, longer horizon, and a genuinely different skill set — this is a portfolio, not a job.
None of these is the smart choice. The smart choice is the one that matches your capital, your season of life, and how you actually want to spend your days.
Who this isn't for
I'd rather say this now.
I work with a small number of candidates at a time — usually three to five — so that each one gets real attention. It also means being upfront about the situations where I'm not the right person to help.
You're looking for passive income.
Franchises aren't passive. Even manager-run models require an owner who's engaged, and the ones that get treated as passive tend to underperform.
You want to skip steps.
Pace isn't the issue — motivated candidates can go from the first call to a signed agreement in a few weeks, and that's fine when someone is prepared and decisive. What doesn't work is skipping the parts that protect you: validation calls with existing franchisees, a real read of the FDD, an honest look at your funding. If you want to move fast, I'll move with you. If you want to move fast by cutting corners, I'm not the right fit.
You're not adequately capitalized.
There's a wide range of investment levels in franchising, and part of my job is finding concepts that fit the capital you actually have. What doesn't work is stretching to the edge of it. Underfunding is the most common reason good operators fail, so if the numbers aren't there yet, the honest answer is to wait — and I'll tell you that instead of finding you something cheaper.
You want to build something entirely on your own.
Franchising trades creative control for a proven system. If that trade sounds bad to you, it is — for you.
Start with a conversation.
We'll talk about where you are, what you're weighing, and whether working together makes sense.
Schedule a call