Jon Ostenson is a top 1% Franchise Consultant nationally and he leads FranBridge Consulting as CEO. Jon draws on his experience as a former Inc. 500 Franchise President and Multi-Brand Franchisee in serving his clients. Jon is the author of the bestselling book, ‘Non-Food Franchising’, and is a frequent contributor to franchising for publications such as Forbes, Inc., Bloomberg, and The Franchise Journal.
Episode Highlights Here:
Jon
put together a very strong incentive programme where the better they do, the better you and your business do. In some cases, some of our clients will actually open up the cap table and give them some equity or sweat equity.
Brett
And what’s the number one secret to finding a good manager?
Jon
Yeah, it’s just like with any business, it’s someone that you can trust, someone that you’ve incentivized to really align your interest. And I think it’s someone that’s hungry. And so what we found is a good avatar for a lot of businesses that we’ve invested in personally, as well as our clients. Oftentimes, it’s someone that has been out there in the working world a couple years post-college, they’ve gotten some professional experience, maybe some b2b sales background, just know they’ve learned how to deal with people. But they’re tired of the cubicle world, they’re tired of, even in the early stages, building something for someone else, you know, they want to go build their own empire. And so some of those can, you know, but they may not have the capital to go do it on their own. And so those can be great managers that you bring in, you put together a very strong incentive programme, where the better they do, the better you and your business do. In some cases, some of our clients will actually open up the cap table and give them some equity or sweat equity. In some cases, like when I had one Rata GM who was 27, had been a CPA, he went out and started selling, you know, driveway business for us. And, you know, but he was a couple of months old, and he said, “Hey, I really liked this opportunity, I’m wanting to be a part of what we’re building, you know, can I buy into 10 to 20% equity?” And, of course, we love hearing that, you know, he’s putting his own skin in the game, which makes them even stickier. So, you know, you’ve got to go in with the reality that, hey, that first manager may not be the right guy for a right gal forever. And that’s where a headache can come in, and you have to replace them. But doing your due diligence and finding a great player. I mean, I’ve got plenty of client case studies where, you know, they’ve really trusted the person giving them some equity and said, Hey, go make us proud. And then, you know, I’ll just give one example, client Nathan comes to mind. Nathan’s the largest franchisee of two minute Truck Moving service, based in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s grown that to over 12 markets, I believe he’s in now. And that’s about a $30 million a year business, you know, larger and larger than most of our clients’ businesses. But every year Nathan and I do a deal together where he’s come back and you said, hey, you know, what’s, what’s hot? What do you like these days, and I show him a few options. He takes one run and puts a young guy in place that says hey, go make us proud. And he actually does give them equity. And in every case, he’s come back and bought additional locations within the first year, which is always a great sign. So yeah, that’s just kind of an illustration.
Watch the episode here:
Important Links:
About Jon Ostenson
Jon Ostenson is a top .1% Certified Franchise Consultant, owner/investor, author, and international speaker specializing in the area of non-food franchising. He draws on his experience as both the president of an Inc. 500 franchise system and as a multi-brand franchise in serving his consulting clients that are looking to explore business ownership opportunities.
Jon serves as CEO of FranBridge Consulting where he helps clients understand all aspects of non-food franchising in the process of introducing them to opportunities from the over 600 high growth brands that he represents.
Jon is the author of ‘Non-Food Franchising’ and is a frequent contributor and thought leader for publications on the topic of franchising and franchise investments. Prior to FranBridge, Jon was the President of ShelfGenie, a national franchise system with 200 locations.
Prior to ShelfGenie, Jon was the Vice President of Sales for Carter’s Inc., responsible for over $350M in annual sales. Jon began his career as a Consultant with Accenture, often working Internationally on behalf of clients.
Jon received a BBA in Finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia’s Honors Program in 2002 and returned to Athens 3 years later to earn his MBA. In 2014, the UGA Alumni Association selected Jon as a recipient of its “40 Under 40” recognition.
Jon and his wife have three young children and are active in the community. Jon sits on the Board of Directors for Growing Leaders, Inc. and the Entrepreneur’s Organization and serves as a mentor through several non-profit organizations.
Specialties: franchising, investments, corporate strategy, executive leadership, general management, sales management, domestic and global account management, financial analysis, P&L management, negotiation, executive presentation, product development and lifecycle management, e-commerce, board member.
- capitalgainstaxsolutions.com
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Facebook
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Twitter
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Tiktok