Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Franchising Unboxed. My name is Mike Wootton. I'm here with my partner in crime, Dustin Thompson, today. We're gonna talk a little bit about, kind of a broad subject, which could really go any different direction as we kind of kind of pull this apart and unbox it, so to speak. But who makes a great franchisee? What prototype? What type of person? What type of background, brings you to the table to become, a high performer in in the QSR franchise world? What what does that background look like, and then how does that translate into success in our world? So, I'm gonna turn it over to Dustin to to let him talk a little bit about Jack in the Box and what our requirements are, and then we'll kinda throw it back and forth a little bit with some, you know, intrinsic historical stories of that of folks that we've worked with that have had, success in brands where we've, been working in. Yeah. Thanks, Mike. I think, you know, starting off, you know, I don't think these are any particular order, but I would say for if you had to put them in order, this will be number one. And I think number one is you gotta have a passion for jackpots. I mean, at the end of the day, you gotta love this because this is what you're gonna be living and breathing every single day. We've got a great brand. We've got great products. We've got great customer base. You've gotta really enjoy this. You've gotta really enjoy following that system. So number two on that list would probably be following a system. You know, we've got a great system in place. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. So unless the square wheel comes along down the road, we've already done all the the leg work for you in that regard. You just have to follow our our system and our processes, to run your business. Another one that I think that is is probably sometimes easily overlooked or maybe is even easily assumed is you have to have franchise experience or, you know, restaurant experience to buy a Jack in the Box franchise, and that's just not the case. It is preferred for sure. We you know, it's much easier to transition someone who's already worked at QSR or currently owns a QSR into another QSR because you already kinda have that down. But I would even say, you know, bringing somebody on board that doesn't have that experience, they're gonna learn the Jack way. They're gonna learn what makes us different. They're gonna embrace the brand in our system without any bias previous bias. So either one, will work. I will say, you know, when you're when you think about coming on and you've never had QSR experience, we haven't we're gonna require that you bring on an operator much further down the road. That's gonna be after, you know, your development agreement, and we have some some guidelines for that. But we just wanna make sure. We've been doing this a long time. One of the things that you're buying with Jack in the Box is seventy plus years of history, and one of those things that we've seen is going into a market without a good operator. If you don't come from that background, it's gonna be something that could be detrimental. So I wanna make sure that you have that, some of that person on your team. Another one is our financial requirements. And and, Mike, I'll let you kinda dive into that. But having the financial requirements is is key because this is a very, you know, it's very it's very rigid. Right? I mean, it takes a certain amount to open a jack in the box franchise. We're gonna have a certain level of commitment for a number of stores, in your market. So we wanna make sure that you can hit that financially and then hopefully not rock the boat too much. But, Mike, how about through those, financial requirements? Yeah. It's pretty simple. I mean, realistically, we're looking at net worth over one point five million, and that's kind of a nebulous thing, net worth. But, the key piece there really would be liquidity. Our our our minimum is five hundred thousand. Realistically, in today's world, with with with the costs that we have kind of growing in all all portions of the economy, I would like to see people at seven hundred and fifty thousand liquid, or above. And just keep in mind, if you have partners, that number is kind of the sum of all parts. Right? We're not looking at having to have one person with seven hundred fifty liquid sitting in, you know, mutual fund account somewhere. That is that is kind of the the sum of all parts of any partnership that you would have, that you'd be bringing into the organization. Yeah. I mean, just touch one more point on kind of, you were kind of going through some things, and it made me think of some stories I've told in the past. An important piece of the puzzle is you have to have a passion for people. And Dustin kinda touched on, we have seven years of experience teaching people how to run QSR restaurants. So the the blocking and tackling of of that is easy to kinda teach new folks that are coming in. Where I see super successful franchisees that are people that have a passion for the folks that they employ and wanna see them succeed, give them opportunities to, advance. You know, there's so many cool stories I've heard over time of of kids that have come in kind of entry level in the kitchen and then, you know, stay with an organization for seven, eight, ten, fifteen years, and now they're overseeing, you know, twenty five restaurants. And and and just being able to give people opportunity. I think sometimes there's kind of this stigma in QSR that, oh, you're just getting a a basic starting job. But the reality is if you have a passion for showing people the opportunity in this industry and giving them the opportunity to grow, that's who I think the best franchisees are that understand kind of that the success of their, you know, two point five to three million dollars investment is really kind of rooted in the success that the people that they employ, are successful inside their restaurants treating customers kind of to an experience that really allows them to wanna come back over and over again. So I kinda went a lot of different ways there, but that's kind of, you know, your conversation kind of made me think, you know, you gotta understand and give people opportunities and love seeing people succeed. And that's really a key piece, I think, from a franchise ownership, component that makes, it takes you from an average franchisee to a ultra successful one. Yeah. I think a lot of people, they think of the when they talk about, you know, you've gotta take care of, people. This is a people business. I think, like like you said and then said it well, people forget about, you know, their staff. I mean, yeah, we're our customers are extremely important, but your staff is your day to day interaction with your customers. So if you if you're if you take care of your team, they're gonna take care of you and take care of your customers, and that's exactly what franchisees want. You know, one thing I've really picked up on in in franchising, and, Mike, you've been in franchising even longer than I have, is a strong entrepreneurial spirit. When you meet when when we go out and we're in a market and we meet with, you know, whether it be existing franchisees or prospective franchisees, you can almost like, there it's palpable, the entrepreneurial spirit that comes out. You know? It's just you could feel it. Not only just how they talk, it's their confidence, it's their ability to know what they want, and they know that they could follow a system and get there. There's just something really exciting about that. I mean, it's just there's some it's part of the American dream, to some degree, but I just I feel like that entrepreneurial spirit is just really a hallmark of what we look for. I'm in a franchisee, but really what makes a a great franchisee for any system. And do you see that as well, Mike? Totally. I mean, we were just in market, with some new restaurant openings out in in the Chicago area and and met with a a lot of candidates in that area, and it's like we're in a restaurant. It's obviously, we're still in the honeymoon period. The the doors are being blown off from a volume standpoint. There's excitement. And to look into the eyes and see kind of that entrepreneurial spirit, kind of people leaning into that when they're like, wow. I wanna be a part of this because they feel like they can take on the excitement, the energy, and kind of want to be a part of that. It's, it's really cool to see. You know, we spend a lot of time nowadays on phone and Zoom, etcetera. But when you're sitting down with a with a candidate that wants to become a part of the system and you can kinda feel that energy of that entrepreneurial spirit, it's really cool. Yeah. One thing is and this probably isn't listed on our website or you we probably don't see it anywhere. But, you know, one thing that I feel like that I've learned from, you know, again, speaking of entrepreneurs and and what really it would be a good thing to ask for or, you know, requirement would be someone that asked for help. You know, we can't all be experts. I'm I'm not an expert in operations. I'm not an expert in real estate. I'm not an expert in accounting or finance. There's a number of things that I'm just not going to excel at. And we don't expect our franchisees to necessarily be the best at all of those things. We want you to take care of your store. We want you to be able to execute our system, but we also want you to be able to ask for help. We have an entire support system in place, you know, a jack in the box. We want you to utilize that. Don't, you know, don't be afraid to ask. You know, there's nothing wrong with asking. So being able to ask for help, I feel like it's something that's often overlooked, but an extremely important aspect to becoming a franchisee. You'd be, you know, not just a next level franchisee. We'll say that. Another big one I've just kind of as we're as we're spitballing here, another big one is the ability and the energy to go outside of your four four walls. Really, really good franchisees are gonna get out into the community, engage with the schools, engage with the businesses that are within their kind of trade area. Just build kind of the name of Jack in the Box in the neighborhood. Make it a part of the community. People that will go out and kind of become a part of that community, it really does make connections that allow, for for, you know, sales to increase. It it really does pay off in the long haul. A lot of people sit there inside the restaurant and go, we got the sign out there. We're ready to roll. Let's do it. But those folks that'll take that extra effort, you know, go out and do things in the community, really, really kind of take that extra step forward, when you when you look at the end of the year and what that volume could could turn into. Yeah. I think to kind of summarize all of this is you'll notice there's one thing that we didn't cover, and that's any particular background or any particular field. One thing I've learned in franchising is that never do have your book cover. People come from all walks of life. It doesn't matter how successful you were in your past or previous career. You know, if you could follow the system and really come in with a, you know, an an excitement, entrepreneurial spirit, meet the qualifications that we have. I mean, those are the things that we're looking for. It doesn't matter your background. We've seen hotel operators to doctors, to people that own businesses, to family businesses, partners come in for the first time that work corporate jobs. There are so many backgrounds that there's nothing we could do to name all those on, you know, this podcast. But I just want you to understand that, really, those things that we've spoke about before that was really what we're looking for. Your necessarily your business background isn't as much as important. It can add to, obviously, you know, the your your candidacy requirements, but it doesn't take away. We we like I said, if you if you're an entrepreneur, you can meet our qualifications. You can do all those things. That's ultimately what we're looking for in the development process. Perfectly said. I really can't add anything. I mean, really just a passion for the brand and being proud of being a business owner, I think, is really kind of, you know, the sum the sum of all parts. Right? Be proud of what you're doing and and and be be able to kind of go out and, lead from the front. That's really kind of the key piece. Well, if you feel like you meet any of those qualifications, all of those qualifications, have questions about any of those qualifications, please don't hesitate. Reach out to a member of our team. Mike and I will reach back out to you as soon as we can. We'd love to schedule a call, get to understand your background, kind of walk through our requirements, let you know where we're growing, and discuss next steps. We appreciate you stopping by, hanging out with us on the podcast today. Mike, I'll let you send us home. Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for listening, and can't wait to have a conversation with you about, your your particular background. It's always a new one, and it's always fun to to learn a little bit about, the folks at inquire.