RS: When did you start in franchising?
NN: I started in franchising in 2002 when I was fortunate to meet Mike Cassidy, Tom Wood, Charlie Chase and Steve Rogers at FirstService Brands. After serving as vice president at one of their former brands I moved on to Floor Coverings International.
The great thing about FirstServiceBrands is they give their team the opportunity to rotate from company to company building strong systems. I had the opportunity to work on great teams domestically and internationally and meet many of the site leaders in franchising. The lessons they taught me I use to this day.
In 2012 I started consulting and launched The Franchise Consulting Company in 2016. We have grown to over 140 people in the US with five offices overseas and have the privilege of speaking with hundreds of people a day who are interested in starting their business career with a franchise.
RS: The Franchise Consulting Company is killing it! Then you wrote a bestseller. Can you tell us about it?
NN: I wrote The Franchise MBA in 2013 after thinking about the many people I have met who started successful businesses and those who weren't so successful. The lessons that I learned formed the content of the book.
I've been honored that it has been the number one best-selling book on Amazon in the franchise category since 2013 and the highest reviewed book in the franchise category since it was published.
We have sold tens of thousands of books and it has been published in Spanish and Arabic. The best outcome of publishing the book is the many entrepreneurs that I meet at trade shows and conferences telling me the book was one of the instrumental components in them deciding to embrace entrepreneurship.
RS: Super fabulous. Then you started producing a new franchise trade show. How did you come upon that idea?
NN: We launched The Great American Franchise Expo, an 8 city franchise trade show, in 2018 based on the many franchisors who expressed an interest in getting help to showcase their brands across the United States.
It is a unique trade show in that we blend virtual reality with face-to-face meetings and we are the only American owned franchise trade show in existence. We view the tradeshow and franchising in general as a way to highlight the best of American entrepreneurship across our great country.
We have been fortunate to meet hundreds of political leaders, business owners and other people who are rolling up their sleeves and creating their own destiny.
The reason we called it The Great American Franchise Expo is that we want to attract all those really fantastic people who have worked so hard for so long, usually making other people rich. We want them to now put those skills and spirit and business ethic to work for themselves.
RS: And finally you have now introduced the Franchise Journal which had its debut issue in January. Lots of franchise mags around. What's special about this one?
https://issuu.com/thefranchisejournal/docs/february_2020
NN: So many of our amazing individuals at The Franchise Consulting Company tell us stories every day about helping people find the ideal franchise.
Some of the stories just blew us away, so we wanted to have a platform where we could share and highlight the achievements of these individuals who have embraced the franchise model and want to grow their own businesses.
The Franchise Journal is a testament to those who make our country the envy of the world when it comes to creativity and entrepreneurship.
I look forward to translating the Franchise Journal, like the Franchise MBA, into multiple languages to help expand the reach of American franchising around the globe.
We are fortunate to have both the creativity and resources in this country to come up with great ideas that can lift entire communities and economies through the power of franchising.
This is something the world desperately needs and I believe franchising is a noble endeavor that pairs ideas with local business owners who can then make their own difference in their communities.
